Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s ‘critical mistake’ before death

Israeli officials have shared new details of the operation that killed Yahya Sinwar, revealing how he was forced out of hiding.

Slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar made a “critical mistake” before he was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza Strip, according to officials who revealed how he was forced into the open.

Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre in Israel, died after inadvertently being found by Israeli trainee squad commanders from an infantry school unit in the city of Rafah.

His body was located among rubble in a building shelled by an Israeli tank, after engaging in a skirmish with patrolling Israeli soldiers near a refugee camp.

The leader of Hamas had evaded the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for more than 12 months but, officials say, was running out of places to hide as soldiers closed off streets and blew up the terror organisation’s tunnel network.

Major Doron Spielman has revealed this forced Sinwar into making a fatal error – one world leaders hope may finally pave the way for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Yahya Sinwar was killed after a year of evading the IDF. Picture: Mohammed Abed/AFP

“In fact, just yesterday he did so,” Major Spielman said, the Telegraph reports.

“He left the tunnel, went into an apartment building, and (Hamas) opened fire on Israeli troops.

“A tank returned fire, and he was killed in that attack.”

Harrowing footage of Sinwar’s final moments was released by the IDF, showing the wounded terrorist covered in debris as he sat in an armchair.

He appeared to throw a stick at the filming drone, before being killed soon after in the shell attack.

Sinwar in his final moments. Picture: IDF/AFP

The Guardian reports it was trainee commanders who engaged Sinwar and his two companions in gunfire near the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp on Wednesday.

Those three men ran for cover in two different buildings, with Sinwar becoming separated from his bodyguards, the newspaper reports.

Tanks shelled both structures before the drone entered to find a keffiyeh-wearing man who would later be revealed as Sinwar sitting on the chair, before throwing a stick in a last act of defiance.

He appeared to be missing part of his right arm.

Soldiers then directed another tank strike on the building, with his body reportedly being recovered afterwards, The Guardian reported.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari. Picture: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP

“Sinwar fled alone into one of the buildings,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

“Our forces used a drone to scan the area.

“Sinwar, who was injured in his hand by gunfire, can be seen here with his face covered in his final moments, throwing a wooden plank at the drone.”

Dr Chen Kugel, the chief pathologist at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, performed the autopsy on Sinwar.

He told CNN that, in his opinion, the Hamas leader died on Wednesday from a “gunshot wound in the head”.

He was unaware of the IDF’s version of events until after examining Sinwar’s body.

“It is based on what I found on the body,” Dr Kugel said.

“He has injury from other sources, like a missile injury in his right forearm, fallen masonry on his left leg, or thigh, and many shrapnels that entered his body, but only in the chest.

“They caused the severe damage, but the cause of death is the gunshot wound in the head.”

Israel had not previously reported its soldiers exchanging gunfire on the building, and a spokesperson told the US broadcaster it was still piecing together the exact details.

It has been revealed that the discovery of Sinwar was not completely random, as the IDF had recovered traces of his DNA in an underground passage close to a tunnel where six dead hostages were located last month.

Sinwar’s death has been described as a significant victory for Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas following the October 7 attacks last year.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war is not over. Picture: Kobi Gideon/GPO

Hamas’ Gaza Strip leader since 2017, Sinwar was the driving force behind the October terror attack that killed 1200 people, mostly Israelis. He was elevated to Hamas’ overall leader in August.

Since then Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.

World leaders including Joe Biden, Anthony Albanese and Emmanuel Macron have all welcomed Sinwar’s death and say it could be a turning point in the war.

“There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Mr Biden said.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Sinwar’s killing was “not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end”.

Joe Biden said Sinwar’s death could prove vital in hopes for a ceasefire. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Iranian officials, however, have warned the killing of Sinwar would strengthen the “spirit of resistance”.

Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya mourned Sinwar in a video statement on Friday, and reiterated the Palestinian group’s position that no hostages would be released “unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops”.

Turkey’s foreign minister on Friday offered his “condolences” to Hamas officials at a meeting in Istanbul following the death of the Palestinian militant group’s leader.

A billboard in Yemen depicting Hamas' slain leader Yahya Sinwar with the Arabic slogan ‘if Sinwar departs from the battlefields, Palestine will birth a thousand Sinwars’. Picture: Mohammed Huwais/AFP

Hakan Fidan “received the president of the Hamas Shura Council Mohammed Ismail Darwish and members of the political bureau” to whom “he presented his condolences for the martyr Yahya Sinwar,” the ministry said in a statement.

At the meeting they also discussed “the state of recent negotiations for a ceasefire deal allowing the exchange of hostages and prisoners”, Fidan’s ministry said.

“Fidan reiterated that Turkey would use all diplomatic means to mobilise the international community against the humanitarian catastrophe underway in Gaza,” it added.

– with AFP.