Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar seems on as Palestinian Hamas supporters participate in an anti-Israel rally over pressure in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Gaza Metropolis, Oct. 1, 2022.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
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Mohammed Salem/Reuters
The Israeli navy says it’s checking the likelihood that the chief of Hamas was killed throughout an operation in Gaza.
The navy says three militants had been killed in a constructing and that the navy and Israel’s Shin Wager home intelligence company are trying into whether or not one in every of them was Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.
Sinwar is Israel’s No. 1 most wished man in Gaza — the Israeli authorities believes he’s the mastermind behind Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
Israel presumes Sinwar has been hiding in tunnels, with some analysts speculating he surrounded himself with Israeli hostages to guard him from assassination makes an attempt.
The navy says there have been no indicators of Israeli hostages within the space of the constructing the place the three militants had been killed and that troops are working within the space with “caution.”
An official aware of the matter talking anonymously to reveal extra particulars stated the militants had been killed Wednesday in an Israeli firefight in southern Gaza. The official stated a physique is being checked for a match with Sinwar’s DNA.
Sinwar was the chief of Hamas in Gaza when the Palestinian militant group led a shock assault on Israel simply over a yr in the past, killing some 1,200 individuals and taking round 250 hostages, in keeping with Israeli officers. About 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza, round a 3rd of whom are believed to be useless.
He was appointed the chief of your complete group after Israel killed his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Tehran in July. The Israeli navy additionally stated it had killed the top of Hamas’ navy wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July. The Israeli navy had earlier killed Hamas’ deputy political chief Salah Arouri in a bombing in Beirut in January.
Born on Oct. 29, 1962, in keeping with Hamas, Sinwar helped discovered the group’s inside safety equipment within the late Eighties. He earned a nickname amongst Palestinians: the “butcher of Khan Younis,” the place he grew up within the southern Gaza Strip.
Sinwar was seen as a hard-liner inside Hamas, much less more likely to attain a ceasefire cope with Israel than different extra pragmatic leaders. He was believed to have been directing operations from the group’s intensive tunnel community beneath the Gaza Strip, speaking with the skin world via handwritten notes delivered by couriers to keep away from Israeli air strikes which have killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians within the besieged coastal enclave.
This can be a creating story that shall be up to date.
