Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz confirmed following a strike in Rafah that was not originally intended to take out the Oct. 7 mastermind.
"Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers," Katz said in a statement. "Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar," the Israel Defense Forces tweeted shortly thereafter.
Photos showed a brainless Sinwar lying in rubble after a group of IDF reservists spotted three terrorists in a building and struck, according to Israeli reporter Nadav Eyal. DNA tests later confirmed that one of those three men was Sinwar, Israel's Channel 12 reported.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation confirming Sinwar's death, said the Gaza Strip is on the precipice of monumental change and urged Hamas's remaining forces to lay down their arms.
"To the Hamas terrorists I say—your leaders are running away and they will be eliminated," Netanyahu said. "I call on everyone who holds our hostages: Whoever lays down his arms and returns our hostages, we will allow him to leave and live. Whoever harms our hostages, there will be blood on his head and we will hold him accountable. The return of our hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our goals and it brings the end of the war closer," Netanyahu said, describing Israel's ongoing military campaign as "The Resurrection War."
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant issued a similar demand for Hamas to release all remaining hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip.
"Yahya Sinwar was eliminated and ended his life beaten, persecuted, and fled. His elimination is a clear message to the families of the fallen and abducted—we are doing everything and will continue to do it," Gallant wrote in a Hebrew-language posting on X. "Residents of Gaza, the end of the man who killed you in a disaster has arrived, go out with the kidnapped, free them and surrender."
Sinwar has evaded Israeli forces for nearly a year since he orchestrated the Oct. 7 attack that slaughtered scores of innocents. His death is a massive victory for Israel that comes less than two weeks after the country marked the one-year anniversary of the terror spree.
- IDF soldiers pose in front of a mural depicting Sinwar as a rat.
Since the war began, Israel has repeatedly eliminated Hamas's senior leadership in targeted strikes, including a daring operation in Tehran earlier this year that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has also wiped out Hezbollah's top commanders in Lebanon, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and the heads of the terror group's elite fighting forces.
Sinwar, 61, formally assumed Hamas's top leadership post in August, after Haniyeh was killed by a remote explosive device while attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran.
Sinwar's death also deals another major blow to Iran, which has provided Hamas and Hezbollah with the funding and weapons needed to conduct their war on Israel. Following Tehran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile strike on the Jewish state, the region has been on edge in anticipation of an Israeli counterstrike, the plans for which are reportedly finalized. Israel is expected to target multiple military sites in Iran prior to the U.S. presidential election in November.
Sinwar has helmed Hamas's day-to-day operations in Gaza since 2017 and was the central architect of the brutal Oct. 7 terror spree that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and saw 251 people, including Americans, kidnapped by the jihadi group. More than 100 remain in captivity, and Sinwar was known to travel through the Gaza Strip with several in tow, hoping to deter an Israeli strike on his location.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that Sinwar had begun dressing like a woman while walking the streets of Gaza to avoid IDF detection.
The Biden-Harris administration has been leaning on Israel to wind down its war effort for the better part of a year, claiming that the humanitarian toll in Gaza is too great. Earlier this week, American officials threatened to cut off critical American arms shipments to Israel if the Jewish state does not do more to deliver aid into Gaza.
This is a developing story and will be updated.