Yahya Sinwar killed in Gaza, confirms Israel's FM

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has been killed in an operation by Israeli forces in Gaza on Thursday, the Israeli foreign minister claimed.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced the killing of Sinwar after hours of operation in Gaza that led to killing of two more people. “The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7th, was eliminated today by IDF (Israeli military) soldiers,” Katz said in a statement sent to media.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said it was examining the possibility that Sinwar was one of three fightes it killed “during IDF operations in Gaza”.

Sinwar has led Hamas within Gaza since 2017, having joined its ranks in the early 1980s.

Earlier in August, Hamas named Sinwar, one of the architects of the October 7 terror attack on Israel, as its new leader after Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination. 

Since Hamas’s October 7 attacks the Hamas leader has been hiding in underground tunnels beneath Gaza.

The overall Palestinian death toll since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza has reached at least 43,165 with more than 99,153 wounded. Thousands more remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.