Israel confirms death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza clash

Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the architect of the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, brutal rampage across southern Israel, has been killed in a raid in the Gaza Strip, Israel said Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz confirmed the reports Thursday afternoon in Jerusalem, citing DNA tests taken after the operation. Israel military officials earlier in the day said that it was “highly likely” that Mr. Sinwar, the lead target in Israel’s military incursion into Gaza, was dead.

Mr. Katz hailed the news as a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued his own statement Thursday evening, saying in a national address that “the man who committed the most terrible massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust, the mass murderer who murdered thousands of Israelis and kidnapped hundreds of our citizens, was eliminated today by our heroic troops.”

“We have demonstrated today that all those who try to harm us, this is what happens to them,” he added, while saying Israel’s military campaign to wipe out Hamas as a fighting force was not over with Mr. Sinwar’s death.

“We will not stop the war. We will go into Rafah,” the prime minister said.

Hamas, which is closely allied to Iran, did not issue a statement regarding the Israeli claims, instead posting 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.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the Hamas leader was among those killed in a confrontation with Israeli forces in Tel 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.

“This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” Mr. Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

The AP reported that photos circulating online showed the body of a man resembling Mr. Sinwar with a gaping head wound, dressed in a military-style vest, half buried in the rubble of a destroyed building. The photos were taken by Israeli security officials at the scene, according to the wire service account.

If the terrorist 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.

Several 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 Oct. 7.

Mr. Katz said Mr. Sinwar’s death could improve the chances of an end to the Gaza fighting.

“The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza — without Hamas and without Iranian control,” Mr. Katz said Thursday.

Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hailed the operation and argued it provided an opportunity to clinch the cease-fire deal Washington has long sought.

“There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Mr. Biden said in his statement. “Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists.”