Israel FM says Hamas leader Sinwar is dead

TEL AVIV - Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed.

"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.

The death of Sinwar will represent a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.

Israel's Army Radio said the killing of Sinwar had occurred during a targeted ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.

Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel's wanted list ever since. But he has so far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.

Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August.

Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut last month as well as much of the top leadership of the group's military wing.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023 killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into Gaza. Israel's campaign in response has killed more than 42,000 people, turned much of Gaza into rubble and displaced most of its population.