Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza who orchestrated the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has been eliminated, the Israeli military confirms.
The Israel Defence Forces announced Sinwar was killed in Rafah Wednesday and troops spotted his body on Thursday. A DNA test confirmed his identity.
Israeli authorities informed the United States national security team earlier this morning of Sinwar’s death, according to a White House press release. It’s unclear whether this was a deliberate effort on part of the IDF to eliminate Sinwar or if the United States contributed to finding him in this instance.
President Biden said that after the October 7 massacre, he had directed Special Operations personnel and intelligence professionals to collaborate with Israel to help locate and track Sinwar, among other Hamas leaders.
“With our intelligence help, the IDF relentlessly pursued Hamas’s leaders, flushing them out of their hiding places and forcing them onto the run,” Biden said. “Today, however, proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.”
In her remarks, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “Justice has been served. The U.S., Israel and the entire world are better off as a result” and that Sinwar “had American blood on his hands.”
Harris expressed her hope that families of October 7 victims can take some solace in the news of his killing, and then declared that “Hamas is decimated,” calling Sinwar’s death an “opportunity to end the war in Gaza” and bring hostages home. “It is time for the ‘day after’ to begin.”
In a four minute video, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Israelis and Gazans following news of Sinwar’s death.
“Now it is clear to everyone, in Israel and in the world why we insisted on not ending the war, why we insisted in the face of all the pressures to enter Rafah, the fortified stronghold of Hamas where Sinwar and many of the murderers hid,” Netanyahu said, adding that “the war is not yet ended.”
Netanyahu urged Palestinians holding hostages in Gaza to release them, saying that they would be allowed to “leave and live” if they abide.
“Yahya Sinwar was not a leader of peace. He was a mastermind of hate,” says Moment Editor-in-Chief Nadine Epstein. “October 7, code-named ‘the big project,’ wreaked havoc for Israelis and his own people. It changed the trajectory of the world, even here in the United States, where his actions and Israel’s response has had serious ramifications. Internationally, it shifted geopolitical alliances.
“What happens when a man like this is gone? That is the question of the hour, the day, the week, the month, the years. Like you, we will be watching carefully and hoping, praying even, for violence to recede.
Israeli News Coverage:
Israel Hayom: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar eliminated by IDF in Gaza
Jerusalem Post: Analysis: Will Yahya Sinwar’s death end Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza?
Jerusalem Post: Netanyahu: Sinwar’s dead, now time to stop axis of evil, free hostages *(Graphic imagery of a dead body is included within the article).
Times of Israel: Yahya Sinwar: Radical Islamist ideologue utterly committed to Israel’s destruction
Israel Hayom: Yahya Sinwar: The released terrorist who became the mastermind of Oct. 7
Top image: Yahya Sinwar has been eliminated by the IDF in Gaza (Credit: Fars Media Corporation / Bilal Al-Duwaik).