Israeli military have reported the possibility that Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader behind the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, may have been killed during their operations in Gaza.
In a statement on Thursday, October 17, Israeli military confirmed that three militants were killed in the Gaza Strip, and they are investigating if one of them was Yahya Sinwar.
The military has yet to confirm the identities but noted no signs of hostages were found in the area where the militants were killed.
According to Israeli security sources, the bodies have been taken for DNA testing, with officials assessing a “high probability” that Sinwar was one of those killed.
The bodies were discovered with cash and fake IDs, and Israeli reports suggest that Sinwar was not specifically targeted, but killed by chance during the operation.
The incident occurred during a ground mission in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, where Israeli troops engaged and killed three militants.
Israeli radio stations have mentioned that visual evidence strongly points to one of the dead being Sinwar, but DNA tests are underway to confirm this.
Israel had access to Sinwar’s DNA from his previous time in an Israeli prison.
Yahya Sinwar, now 61, has been a key figure in Hamas since its early days.
Born in a refugee camp in southern Gaza, he became known for his role in tracking down and eliminating Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.
He spent over two decades in Israeli prison after being convicted for the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers, as well as four Palestinians.
In 2011, he was released in a prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Yahya Sinwar became Hamas’s chief in Gaza in 2017 and had survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts before this possible strike.
KanyiDaily recalls that on October 1, Iran fired around 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Abbas Nilforoushan.
