Israel says Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, has been killed in a major blow to a militant group

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Hamas’ top leader and long-time commander in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by troops during an operation in the decimated Palestinian territory.

In a message that the Israeli government said was shared with dozens of other foreign ministers around the world, Katz said Sinwar, “who is responsible for the October 7 massacre and atrocities, was killed today by IDF soldiers.”

“This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the free world in everything against the evil axis of extreme Islam led by Iran,” Katz said in the statement sent by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to CBS News .

The Israeli military said in a subsequent statement that Sinwar was killed on Wednesday “during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip,” without providing further details. Before his killing was confirmed, Israeli media had been claiming for hours that Sinwar had been killed by troops conducting a routine patrol near the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. According to unconfirmed reports, troops spotted several armed men and opened fire on them, only realizing that Sinwar was among the dead.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement that “justice has been served to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar,” adding that he hoped the killing “would lead to would lead to further progress. to the release of all hostages still held in Gaza, and to a ceasefire for the Palestinians who have suffered under the grip of Hamas for far too long.”

A photo circulating on social media showed a man resembling the Hamas commander lying dead in a pile of rubble with a gaping head wound, but CBS News could not immediately verify the image. Sinwar has been one of the most wanted figures on Israel’s target list since Hamas launched it Cross-border terrorist attack of October 7, 2023which left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 others taken hostage.

“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area,” the IDF said earlier Thursday, referring to the operation that killed two men along with Sinwar.

Who was Yahya Sinwar

Sinwar, 61, was accused by Israel of orchestrating the October 7 terrorist attack. He had remained in hiding in Gaza since the massacre.

‘Sinwar is the terrorist, the master terrorist, who planned and executed October 7 [massacre]in which so many innocent Israelis were murdered – children, women and the elderly,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on Thursday. “Sinwar died being beaten, persecuted and on the run – he did not die as a commander. but as someone who only cared for himself. This sends a clear message to all our enemies: the IDF will reach anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel or our security forces, and we will bring you to justice.”

Sinwar was that declared the overall leader of Hamas in August, after the assassination of the former political leader Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Iran. Before that, he led the group as its top commander in Gaza since 2017. He was considered a ruthless militant commander with close ties to Hamas’s biggest benefactor, Iran.

According to CBS News’ partner network BBC News, Sinwar was born in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. His parents had lived in Ashkelon, now southern Israel, but were among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in the war that followed Israel’s founding in 1948.

At a 2021 press conference in Gaza, after an earlier 10-day round of violence between Hamas and Israel, Sinwar told international journalists: “The best gift the occupation leaders [Israel] can give me is killing me, because since childhood I was raised in a way that taught me to sacrifice my life for this country.”

“We are not lovers of murder and death, but we are a people who must get our rights back,” he said. “If this is secured through popular resistance, non-violent resistance and international diplomacy, then that is preferable, but if we are forced to use the most dangerous means, then we are ready, and our people will not hesitate to use any means necessary.” use to make their money. rights.”

Israel’s steady elimination of Hamas leaders

The IDF has killed dozens of commanders and hundreds of fighters belonging to Hamas, long designated a terrorist group by the US, Israel and many other countries, since Israel launched its blistering war in Gaza in immediate retaliation for the October 7 attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted since the start of the war that no senior Hamas figure would escape – and there was no one higher up in Gaza than Sinwar.

Haniyeh, who lived in exile in Qatar for decades, was murdered in the Iranian capital in late July after attending the inauguration of that country’s new president. Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the brazen killing in Tehran, but US officials told CBS News at the time that it was an Israeli attack.

Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July, according to the IDF.

“There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and that is next to Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7 terrorists,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in an interview last summer. “That’s the only place we prepare and plan for him.”

Israel’s top coordinator for hostages and missing persons told CBS News’ Elizabeth Palmer in September that the Israeli government was prepared to provide safe passage to Sinwar and his family to leave Gaza if Hamas agreed to give up control of Gaza and allow the return of the remaining 101 hostages.

“It would mean the end of the war, like [the hostages] will be recovered,” Israeli negotiator Gal Hirsch told CBS News at the time. Sinwar never responded to the Israeli proposal.

Israeli hostage families react

Even before his death was confirmed by the IDF, Israel’s Hostages Families Forum said in a statement that his killing was an achievement, but only the return of their loved ones could be considered a victory.

“The Hostages Families Forum commends the security forces for eliminating Sinwar, who masterminded the largest massacre our country has ever seen, responsible for the murder of thousands and the kidnapping of hundreds,” the group said. “However, we express our deep concern for the fate of the 101 men, women, elderly people and children who continue to be held captive by Hamas in Gaza. We call on the Israeli government, world leaders and intermediary countries to transform the military achievement into a diplomatic achievement. by pursuing an immediate agreement for the release of all 101 hostages: the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for proper burial.”

Of the 101 hostages still held in Gaza, 64 are still alive, according to Israeli intelligence.

Sinwar’s killing was announced hours after more than a dozen Palestinians, including children, were killed in a war Israeli airstrike on a school in JabaliaAccording to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered Palestinian territory, it provided shelter for displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip.

Haley Ott contributed to this report.