Israeli navy: DNA check to substantiate attainable dying of Oct. 7 mastermind
The head of Hamas and the architect of the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, brutal rampage across southern Israel, ’very likely’ has been killed in a shootout Wednesday, Israeli military officials said Thursday morning.
An Israeli military spokesperson said there were indications that Yahya Sinwar, who has long eluded Israeli forces while directing the military resistance inside the Gaza Strip, has been “eliminated,” the Reuters news agency reported. Two hours later, Israeli Army Radio reported that DNA tests confirmed that the Hamas leader was among those killed in a confrontation with Israeli forces in Tal al Sultan in the southern part of the enclave.
Four Israeli officials said the military had taken the body of a slain militant to a laboratory in Israel to assess whether its DNA matches that of Mr. Sinwar. The Associated Press quoted an Israeli military statement that said three militants had been killed during the operation.
President Biden was briefed on the operation while on a flight to Germany, the Agence France-Presse news service reported, and U.S. officials said they were monitoring the situation.
Hamas did not issue a statement regarding the Israeli claim, posted a message warning against false reports and saying only messages released by the group on its Telegram account should be regarded as accurate. The statement was silent on the status of Mr. Sinwar, the Times of Israel reported.
If the terror leader is indeed dead, it would be the latest success for Israel in hunting down those behind the Oct. 7 massacre. Ismail Haniyeh, long the political leader of Hamas, was killed by a bomb while in Tehran this summer for the inauguration of the new Iranian president.
A number of top Hamas military commanders have also been killed in the fighting that erupted after the Oct. 7 attacks, but Mr. Sinwar had long been considered the top target for Israeli forces. He had not been seen in public since a video surfaced just three days after the 2023 attack, but he was elevated to the top post in Hamas after Haniyeh was assassinated.
There were reports in January that Israeli troops narrowly missed capturing him near his hometown of Khan Younis.
While a security triumph for Israel, Mr. Sinwar’s possible death could prove yet another hurdle for the U.S.-backed diplomatic efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza, one that would also free dozens of Israeli and foreign nationals held by Hamas since October 7.
