SINWAS! Hamas terror chief and architect of 7 October massacre dead

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who was at the centre of the 7 October massacre, has been killed in an IDF operation, it has been confirmed.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz, said:”“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers.”

He added: “This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of radical Islam led by Iran.”

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Katz also said the killing “creates a possibility” for getting the hostages out immediately and for creating a Gaza free of Hamas and Iranian control.

He added: “Israel needs your support and assistance now more than ever to advance these important goals together.”

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In a statement released by the IDF on Thursday afternoon it was confirmed: “During Israel Defence Forces operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated.

“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant posted on X: “Our enemies can’t hide”.

UK defence secretary John Healey said he will “not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar”.

He added: “I for one, will not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar – someone who was responsible for the terror attack on 7 October.

“He triggered not just the darkest, deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Second World War, but that it’s triggered more than a year of conflict and an intolerable level of civilian Palestinian casualties.”

US president Joe Biden was briefed aboard Air Force One while heading to Germany after Israel said it was checking whether it had killed Sinwar.

Israeli security officials also said the bodies of the three terrorists had been taken from Rafah to Israel for DNA tests “with high probability” that one of those killed was Sinwar.

Photographs had circulated on social media which appeared to show Sinwar’s dead body throughout the day.

Graphic images posted online show a figure resembling Sinwar lying in the rubble of a building in the aftermath of intense military activity in Rafah with fatal injuries to his head.

Two reputable Israel media organisations, including KAN radio, said the Israeli cabinet had been informed Sinwar was “very likely dead” when they met on Thursday afternoon.

Reports in Israel said Sinwar was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering, and that the bodies were found with lots of cash and fake IDs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address in Hebrew to the nation, said the killing brought the war closer to its end, and once the remaining hostages were released he anticipated a pivot toward regional peace.

“The return of the hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our aims and bring closer the end of the war,” Netanyahu  said.

“To the peoples of the region I say, in Gaza, Beirut, throughout the region, darkness is receding and light is rising,” he said. “I call on you, the peoples of the region, we have a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future, a period of growth in the whole region. Together, we can expel the curse and to advance the blessing.” The “axis of evil” refers to Iran and its allies, including Hamas, which was led by Sinwar, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sinwar’s death comes just over two months after he ascended to Hamas’ top position, following the assassination attributed to Israel of the terror group’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

He orchestrated the October 7 massacre, which led to the murders of over 1,200 people, including Israelis and other nationalities alike, and took hostage over 250 people, of which 101 remain in Gaza.

The 62-year-old Sinwar, also known as Abu Ibrahim, masterminded Hamas’s deadly cross-border assault together with Qassam Brigades chief Mohammed Deif.

Deif, along with much of the top Hamas military leadership in Gaza, was killed over the past year in Israeli air strikes.

Sinwar, originally from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, helped build Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, from its inception in the 1980s. He then spent nearly two decades in Israeli prison, learning Hebrew, but was released in 2011 as part of a swap deal for a seized Israeli soldier.

The Hostage Families Forum immediately called on the government to leverage Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s likely killing to secure an immediate hostage deal.

“Along with the appreciation for the significant achievement [of Sinwar’s apparent killing], the families of the hostages express grave concern for the fate of the 101 hostages who are still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza and demand that [the government] leverage the military achievement to secure an immediate deal to bring about their return,” a statement from the forum said.

“The elimination of Sinwar is an important milestone on the way to the real victory, which will only be achieved with the return of the 101 abductees.”