Israeli army ‘checking’ if Hamas leader Sinwar killed

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Israel’s military campaign in response to a Hamas attack in 2023 has killed more than 42,000 people.
Israel’s military campaign in response to a Hamas attack in 2023 has killed more than 42,000 people.

The Israeli military says it is looking into whether top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The military said in a statement on Thursday that three militants were killed during operations in the enclave, without elaborating. 

It said the identities of the three were so far not confirmed but it was “checking the possibility” that one of the three was Sinwar.

It said there were no signs that hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website  that usually publishes about security issues, urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself and not Israeli media outlets, which it said aimed to break their spirit.

An Israeli security official said it appeared that the man who may be Sinwar was killed in a battle, not in a planned targeted air strike.

Israeli authorities said the police, military, and Shin Bet security services were working to confirm identification through a number of different tests. 

So far, police have checked dental records, a police spokesperson said. 

They are still awaiting the full test results from DNA testing.

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.

Israel’s Army Radio said the incident had occurred during a ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops  killed three militants and took their bodies.

It said visual evidence suggested it was likely that one of the men was Sinwar and DNA tests were being conducted. 

Israel has samples of Sinwar’s DNA from his period in an Israeli jail.

Sinwar, allegedly the chief architect of the October 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 the Gaza Strip over the past two decades.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted a message on social media platform X with a biblical quotation.

“‘You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.’ –  Leviticus 26 Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them.”

The post contained pictures of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in Beirut last month and former Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who was killed in August, with a blank space for a third picture between them.

All three were crossed out in red.

Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 killing about 1200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into the Gaza Strip. 

Israel’s campaign in response has killed more than 42,000 people, turned much of Gaza into rubble and displaced most of its population.

AP and Reuters

AAP