Updated at 5:05 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.
Vice President Harris gave a brief address on Sinwar’s killing, saying that over the past year, “American special operations and intelligence personnel have worked closely with their Israeli counterparts to locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders, and I commend their work.”
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.”
Later in the day, Biden spoke with Netanyahu, and according to a White House readout of the call, the two leaders discussed “how to use this moment to bring the hostages home and to bring the war to a close with Israel’s security assured and Hamas never again able to control Gaza.”
Sinwar’s killing comes after Israeli media reports that said the Israeli government is not interested in restarting hostage and ceasefire talks with Hamas and is instead looking to annex portions of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces are currently carrying out the beginning of an ethnic cleansing plan in northern Gaza.
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.
