Israeli military says it is investigating if it killed Hamas chief Sinwar

Three militants were killed during operations in a building in Gaza, military says, though it hasn’t identified them.

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar pictured in 2022. Picture: AFP

The Israeli military on Thursday said it was investigating whether it had killed Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, during operations in Gaza.

Sinwar, a US-designated terrorist, triggered a war with Israel in Gaza in October 2023 that has since expanded to a multifront conflict in the Middle East. His death would mark the severest blow yet to Hamas in more than a year of war.

The killing of Israel’s most wanted militant would also be a major win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed to destroy Hamas’s leadership and military capabilities in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said three militants were killed during operations in a building in the strip, though it was unable to identify them at this stage.

Hamas didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sinwar, who has been Hamas’s top leader in Gaza for years, took control of the group’s political bureau in August after Israel killed the previous leader, Ismail Haniyeh, the preceding month.

Sinwar was widely viewed as the architect of the October 7 attacks that killed 1200 people in southern Israel and led to the kidnapping of around 250 others.

Around 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, including many dead. Talks between Israel and Hamas to secure the release of the remaining hostages have collapsed in recent months, largely due to the intransigence of Sinwar and Mr Netanyahu.

The Israeli military said there was no presence of hostages in the area of operations in Gaza. Israeli officials had previously said they believed Sinwar surrounded himself with hostages as a security measure.

The conflict sparked by the October 7 attacks has killed more than 42,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. The figures don’t tally the number of combatants killed.

During the war, Israel has killed the head of Hamas’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif, his deputy Marwan Issa and a string of lower-level commanders.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military also said it killed Rawhi Mushtaha, another senior Hamas political official and one of a few people considered closest to Sinwar. The two set up Hamas’s internal police force in the 1980s, spent time in prison together and were both released in a prisoner swap in 2011.

For years, Hamas had been split between hardliners such as Sinwar, who view the deaths of civilians as necessary to destabilise Israel, and militants who countenance violence but want the group to preserve some political legitimacy as a route to achieving its aims of a Palestinian state.

After Sinwar became leader in August, he began imposing a more violent vision of Hamas on the group, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Wall Street Journal