Updated at 2:44 pm EST on 10/17/24
The Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency said in a joint statement on Thursday that they confirmed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by the Israeli military in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“A force of the 828th Brigade, which operated in the area, identified and eliminated three terrorists. After completing the process of identifying the body, it can now be confirmed that [Sinwar] was eliminated,” the statement reads.
President Biden released a statement celebrating the killing that said DNA tests confirmed Sinwar was dead. “Shortly after the October 7 massacres, I directed Special Operations personnel and our intelligence professionals to work side-by-side with their Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza,” he said.
Netanyahu said Israel “settled its account” with Sinwar, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7 attack on southern Israel, but warned, “our war has not yet ended.”
So far, there’s been no official confirmation from Hamas that Sinwar is dead. Earlier, Hamas warned against “fake news” and said it would only put out official statements via its Telegram channel or website.
Sinwar is Hamas’s leader in Gaza and also became the political chief after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed by an Israeli assassination in the Iranian capital of Tehran on July 31.
