Rafah, October 17 – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) jointly confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday, October 16, during an operation in Rafah , in the Gaza Strip.
“Southern Command soldiers eliminated Yahya Sinwar … in an operation carried out in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
The IDF said its soldiers killed three militants during the operation, and it later emerged that one of them was Sinwar, who “was responsible for the murder and kidnapping of many Israelis.”
According to the statement, Sinwar was killed despite hiding among the Gaza civilian population for the past year, both on the ground and in Hamas 's underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
Shortly before the IDF statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz confirmed Sinwar's death in a message to foreign ministers of other countries, saying that "this is a great military and moral achievement for Israel."
According to Katz, "Sinwar's elimination creates the possibility of the immediate release of the kidnapped Israelis and a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza without Hamas or Iran's control."
