There have been enormous resources in coordination with the United States and Israel that have been invested in trying to track Yahya Sinwar down now.
News Desk
Occupied JERUSALEM: Members of Israel’s security cabinet have been informed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is very likely dead, two officials with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Two of Israel’s broadcasters, KAN and N12 News also cited Israeli officials as saying Sinwar was dead.
In August, Hamas appointed its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar as the political chief at-large to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, following the latter’s assassination.
The Gaza-based Palestinian leader is public enemy number one in Israel. So, by choosing him as the head of its political bureau, Hamas sent a message of defiance to the Israeli government.
Sinwar has been imprisoned before in Israeli jails. He has a long history of fighting back against Israel, and he was released in a prisoner swap deal in 2011.
Later on, he took leadership of the Hamas movement in Gaza and he has also been responsible for carrying out plenty of military activities and operations against the Israeli army.
People here feel Sinwar holds great symbolism among the Palestinians, and his possible killing would be a great loss for everyone on the ground.
They believe he has been effective in working against Israel in the past year.
People here believed he was hiding underground. But now, if this assassination is confirmed while he was wearing his military uniform, it means that he was following all the latest security developments on the ground.
The Israeli military said earlier on Thursday that it was checking the possibility that it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar following an operation in the Gaza Strip that it said had targeted three militants.
“At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” it said in a statement.
It said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
If confirmed, the death of Sinwar would represent a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.
Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel’s wanted list ever since. But he has so far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.
Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August.
Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut last month as well as much of the top leadership of the group’s military wing.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023 killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into Gaza. Israel’s campaign in response has killed more than 42,000 people, turned much of Gaza into rubble and displaced most of its population.
Yair Lapid has said on X that Israel’s political leadership should push hard for a “comprehensive” deal to return captives still held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas and other groups.
In a statement on X, the opposition leader said Israel should ” take advantage of the opportunity” of the potential killing of Hamas leader Yahyah Sinwar.
Sinwar’s killing has yet to be confirmed by the Israeli army, and Hamas has yet to comment.
