Israeli soldiers kil led Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and three other militants from the Gaza Strip in ground battles on Thursday.
A senior Hamas official has confirmed that the leader of this group was killed. Khalil al-Hayya said in a video statement that Sinwar “was ki lled during combat while responding to the enemy’s aggression against our people.”
Sinwar’s death will only make the group more robust, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with party regulations.
He said the Israeli hostages would only be sent back once all assault on Gaza is over and an in-kind withdrawal of Israeli forces from the region happens.
Al-Hayya is considered the most senior official in Hamas after Sinwar.
The Israeli military earlier said the three ki lled militants had not been immediately identified, and it was “examining a claim” that Sinwar might have been one of them.
According to a joint statement from the IDF and Shin Bet, money documents and weapons were found on their bodies.
I ascribe Israel’s significant military and moral achievement to the determination, daring, and courage of the intelligence forces operating at night to secure our future during the day – together with precise international deployment. — ישרMay 30Israel) May 30, 2019″Iran cannot be everywhere,” said Foreign Minister Katz.
Sinwar’s elimination opens the door to release of hostages now and allows for a process that will bring about a new reality in Gaza —sans Hamas and Iranian control.
The IDF recovered the bodies to conduct a DNA examination. Israel has a DNA sample and biometric data, including dental records, from Sinwar’s time in an Israeli prison.
The units colliding with the three operatives were not on an assassination mission and so had no prior warning that Sinwar was present there.
There were no civilian hostages in the area where terrorists had been holed up inside one of two buildings targeted, the army added.
The raid took place in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, Israeli military radio said. Such a visual cue is only present at an injury: footage shared Thursday night by Israeli authorities after the fighting died down appears to show Sinwar clutching his wayward limb and tossing what could be wood or sand in the UAV’s general direction.
A precision drone strike is claimed to have killed him.
While by Thursday, there had been no official confirmation of Sinwar’s death from the Quraish Brigade itself, back home, Israeli media reported that “a number of defense sources and figures on security developments” were more or less confident that he was indeed dead.
In a post on X, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Enemies of Israel cannot hide.” “Of course, we will hunt and k ill them,” he said.
One of the chief architects is a behind-the-scenes figure who emerged from prison last year following pressure by Iran – Sinwar, once-behind-bars head of Hamas’ hardliners.
He became the most wanted man in Israel by its secret service after it k illed 1,200 people and about another 250 taken hostage.
He was born in 1962 at a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza. He had been a member of Hamas since it was established in 1987, and he headed its security force, which is notorious for torturing suspected collaborators with Israel (he became known as the “Butcher of Khan Yunis”).
Serving a total of 22 years in Israeli prisons throughout his life, Sinwar has grown from tough investigative jailor to master capturer.
He was selected to be the supreme leader of the group after Ismael Haniyeh was shot down in an Israeli attack, apparently July 7cted on July 7 this year, using Iranian missiles from Tehran.
Unlike Haniyeh, who had spent years in exile in Qatar, Sinwar was from Gaza. Throughout recent years, it was next-to-impossible to catch a glimpse of him in public as Hamas’s power only grew under his rule.
Annies Kaimai had earlier quoted people close to him as saying he did not regret the October 7th attacks and a year-long Israeli offensive in Gaza that followed. — Agencies.
