Sources confirm killing of Yahya Sinwar

Hamas Political Bureau chief Yahya Sinwar has been killed, two informed sources confirmed to Mada Masr. 

The Israeli military stated on Thursday afternoon that it had found the bodies of three militants killed during one of its operations in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said that, together with Shin Bet, they were “investigating the possibility” that Sinwar was among the three deceased individuals. 

A Hamas source in Gaza said that leaders of the movement were informed on Thursday that Sinwar was killed “during clashes with the Israeli military.” 

The second source, who is close to a high-level Egyptian security agency, said that Israel had informed Egypt on Thursday that Sinwar had been killed. 

Hamas is yet to release an official statement on the matter. Israeli officials told the New York Times that the suspected body was taken to a laboratory to confirm whether the body’s DNA matches Sinwar’s.

Israeli media outlets began to circulate images of the body found by Israeli soldiers as they were searching a building where clashes took place with Hamas fighters on Wednesday. 

Sinwar was elected as the leader of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip in 2017. Following the assassination of Former Hamas Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, Sinwar was “unanimously” elected to replace him, therefore taking the lead on negotiations with Israel, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, for a ceasefire and the exchange of more than 100 Israeli prisoners still held in Gaza for the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. 

Due to his influential role in Gaza, Israel has considered Sinwar the mastermind of Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by Palestinian resistance factions on October 7 of last year.

Sinwar spent most of his adult life in Israeli prisons and was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap after being sentenced to four life sentences for allegedly killing a number of individuals suspected of collaborating with Israel. 

Sinwar’s assassination has long been a stated aim of the Israeli government, with the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that Israel will “eliminate Sinwar” in a post on X earlier this year. 

A deal which would see a negotiated exile of Sinwar, who is known for remaining present in the strip, was floated as an addition to a ceasefire proposal that Israel submitted to the US in September. The framework presented at the time by a senior advisor to Netenyahu included “safe passage” for Sinwar out of the strip.  

No concrete steps were taken toward the proposal, and talks on the ceasefire have been all but stalled for months. 

Israel has continued throughout the past year to pursue its military strategy in Gaza and has refused to withdraw from the strip — Hamas’s main demand in negotiations to end the war.