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Israeli military confirms killing of Yahya Sinwar
The Israeli military has said it killed Yahya Sinwar in an operation in southern Gaza on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in a statement shared by Reuters, said:
After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.
The statement comes after the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said Sinwar had been killed.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
Key events
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has recently spoken with his US counterpart, defence secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a US official.
The call came moments after Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, announced that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was dead, the official said.
According to CNN, Austin was passed a note about Sinwar’s death during a Nato meeting in Brussels earlier today.
And as we reported earlier, US president Joe Biden was briefed while aboard Air Force One after Israel said it was checking whether Sinwar had been killed.
The US speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and minority leader Hakeem Jeffries have also been briefed on the news of Sinwar’s killing, NBC is reporting.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has commended the Israeli military, the Shin Bet intelligence agency, and the security services for the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.
In a post to X, Herzog described Sinwar as the “mastermind” behind the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel and for being “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians” for years. He added:
His evil endeavors were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East.
I commend the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet, and the security services for eliminating the arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar, the mastermind behind the deadly October 7th attack, has for years been responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians,…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) October 17, 2024
Israeli military confirms killing of Yahya Sinwar
The Israeli military has said it killed Yahya Sinwar in an operation in southern Gaza on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in a statement shared by Reuters, said:
After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.
The statement comes after the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said Sinwar had been killed.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
What we know so far
On Thursday an Israeli military spokesperson said that there was a possibility that Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, had been “eliminated” in a military operation in Gaza, and that Israel was “checking the possibility”.
Here is everything we know so far:
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Israeli police and military said, in a joint statement on Thursday, that dental images have been submitted to the police forensics lab and DNA testing is in progress. It added that, on completion of the processes, it would be “able to confirm the assassination” of Sinwar.
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Hamas sources told Reuters that indications suggest that Sinwar was killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza. There has been no response from Hamas at the time of writing.
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The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, said that Sinwar was dead, despite a positive formal identification yet to be confirmed.“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement, that the Times of Israel reported had been sent to dozens of foreign minister around the world.
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In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that no hostages were believed to have been present at the site of the killing in the Gaza Strip, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “three terrorists were eliminated”.
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US president Joe Biden was briefed aboard Air Force One while heading to Germany after Israel said it was checking whether it had killed Sinwar. Biden, on his way to Berlin for talks with European leaders, was being kept abreast of developments on board the presidential plane, the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.
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The Times of Israel reported that a senior Israeli official said there was a “high likelihood” that the one of the three militants the IDF said it killed in Gaza on Thursday, was Sinwar. The Times of Israel wrote: “According to reports, officials believed with high certainty that the body was that of Sinwar, but it was anticipated that a firm identification would take a number of hours.”
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Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader, if confirmed dead, was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies were found with lots of cash and fake IDs.
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Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website that usually publishes about security issues, has urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself and not Israeli media outlets, which it said aimed to break their spirit, reported Reuters.
The Times of Israel has more on the comments by Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz. According to the publication, Katz made the comments in a message sent to dozens of foreign minister around the world. It says this makes him the first Israeli official to confirm the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, despite identification still in process.
According to the Times of Israel, Katz wrote in his message:
The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who is responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers.
This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of radical Islam led by Iran.”
According to the publication, Katz said the killing “creates a possibility” for getting the hostages out immediately and for creating a Gaza free of Hamas and Iranian control.
“Israel needs your support and assistance now more than ever to advance these important goals together,” it cites Katz as saying.
According to a breaking news line on Reuters, the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, has said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
Formal identification has yet to be confirmed.
On the topic of identifying whether the body is that of Yahya Sinwar, the Israeli police military said in a joint statement on Thursday:
As of now, one of the multiple necessary assessments has been completed for absolute confirmation. Dental images have been submitted to the police forensics lab, and DNA testing is currently in progress.”
Israeli police say dental images sent to lab and DNA testing in process to confirm Sinwar death
Israeli police and military said that in response to recent reports of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s being killed, they are “actively working to establish a definitive identification”, reports Reuters.
According to Reuters, Israeli police say dental images have been submitted to the police forensics lab and DNA testing is in progress. It added that, on completion of the processes, it would be “able to confirm the assassination”.
Seperately, Reuters reports that Hamas sources have said that indications suggest that Sinwar was killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza.
UK defence secretary John Healey has said he will “not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar” if it turns out that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed. He told the BBC that the UK was still waiting for confirmation from Israel as to whether Sinwar had been killed.
According to the BBC, Healey said:
I for one, will not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar – someone who was responsible for the terror attack on 7 October.
[It] triggered not just the darkest, deadliest day for the Jewish people since the second world war, but that it’s triggered more than a year of conflict and an intolerable level of civilian Palestinian casualties.”
Washington will allow some Lebanese nationals to temporarily remain in the US and apply for work authorisation due to unsafe conditions in their home country, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The temporary protected status (TPS) designation will provide an “immigration reprieve” to eligible Lebanese due to the “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Lebanon,” the department said in a statement.