Israel ‘checking possibility’ it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

In what would be one of the biggest scalps claimed by Israel, the country’s military has said it’s checking if it killed the head of Hamas.

Head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar attends a rally in support of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque in Gaza City on October 1, 2022. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

Israel is “checking the possibility” that one of three people it killed in a Gaza attack on Wednesday was the head of Hamas.

If the death of Yahya Sinwar is confirmed it would be Israel’s biggest scalp since the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – and could possibly eclipse even that.

It would be huge coup for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas leader since 2017, Sinwar was the driving force behind the October 7, 2023, terror tacks that killed 1200 mostly Israelis. Since then Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

He was made chairman of Hamas’ political wing in August.

Israel has said that any ceasefire was complicated by Sinwar’s leadership of Hamas. But his death may further inflame tensions in a Middle East at boiling point.

Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah, said its early October attack on Israel was due to the death of Nasrallah. It’s not know how Tehran, already waiting for Israeli retaliation, would react to the killing of Sinwar, 62.

Head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar attends a rally in support of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque in Gaza City on October 1, 2022. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP).

Details are emerging that on a Wednesday patrol in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Israeli soldiers came into contact with three armed men.

Gunfire was exchanged and the three were killed.

The IDF said the soldiers said one of the bodies “looked very much like” that of Sinwar.

“At this time, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” the IDF said in a statement.

To the BBC the IDF said it was “checking the possibility” that Sinwar perished.

Yahya Sinwar speaks during a meeting in Gaza City on April 30, 2022. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)

There are reports he had been hiding among some of the remaining hostages, using them as a human shield.

However, the IDF has said there were no hostages in the area when the three were killed.

The bodies have been taken by Israeli forces for DNA testing to confirm if Sinwar was amongthem. Sinwar spent years in an Israeli jail so the country will have his DNA on file.

In ceasefire negotiations, one of the terms being looked into by mediators was the safe passage of Sinwar out of Hamas. Israel had said it could not tolerate him as remaining in charge of even a hobbled Hamas. But it’s believed it preferred him dead to letting him flee.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, centre, visits a training base targeted by a deadly Hezbollah drone strike a day earlier, October 14, 2024. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Devastating blow’

Taking to the UK’s Sky News, Professor Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics and Political Science said it would be a “devastating blow” if Sinwar were confirmed dead, “for the military wing of Hamas and then on the effectiveness of Hamas as an organisation”.

But Hamas would survive, he said.

“Hamas has already morphed into a guerrilla force and it has already been planning for a long war of attrition … so even though Israel has degraded its military capabilities, it will go on to fight another day.”

Originally published as Israel ‘checking possibility’ it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar