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IDF says Hamas chief killed in Israeli strike
Several local media outlets have confirmed Yahya Sinwar's death, citing Israeli sources. Hamas has made no statement. The possible death of its supreme leader will weaken the group, but will not stop its resistance to Israel, political analysts say.
Hamas leader may be killed in Gaza. The IDF initially announced the possible death of Yahya Sinwar, citing the need to verify the information. Several international and local media outlets later confirmed Sinwar's death, citing Israeli sources. No statements have yet been received from Hamas.
Yahya Sinwar was born in 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian family that had fled Ashkelon 14 years earlier during the Arab-Israeli war. The future Hamas leader earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies from the Islamic University of Gaza and soon after graduating, he became involved in anti-Israel activities. Details of Sinwar's biography are described in various sources with a clear propaganda tint from one side or the other. In the first half of the 1980s, he was imprisoned twice in Israel on charges of "subversion", and by the end of the decade, he was reportedly serving four life sentences for murder and for founding the Hamas security wing. Two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian soldiers. Sinwar spent 22 years in prison and was only released in the early 2010s as part of a process to exchange thousands of Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier.
According to the NYT, he participated in the swap negotiations while in prison, and soon after his release, he became the head of Hamas’s security forces. By 2017, Sinwar was elected leader of the Gaza Strip, pitting Hamas against Palestinian nationalist strongman Mahmoud Abbas to effectively become the sole leader of the Gaza Strip. Following the assassination of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran this year, Sinwar became the head of Hamas’s top leadership. Israel and the West believe Sinwar was the main organizer of last year’s raid on an Israeli kibbutz where Hamas launched a new war in the Gaza Strip.
BBC (blocked in Russia) calls Sinwar Israel 'target number one'
The publication cited media reports that the remains of those killed in Israeli airstrikes had been identified through DNA testing. Israeli security forces have reportedly been storing Sinwar's biological information since he was imprisoned in Israel.
Political scientist and orientalist Elena Suponina talks about Hamas and the significance of its figure for the region.
According to the Times of Israel, three Hamas members were killed in the Israeli attack. Yahya Sinwar was said to be "very likely" among the dead, but identification of the body could take several hours. Gaza authorities said 29 people were killed in the shelling that took place in the Gaza Strip that day.