Hamas leader Sinwar killed in Gaza: Israel

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Israeli army on Thursday claimed that it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

In an official statement on X, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced “the elimination” of Sinwar in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz also said that Sinwar was killed.

The military admitted that there were no signs of the presence of any Israeli “hostages” in the area where he was killed.

The Israeli Army Radio reported that Israeli forces killed Sinwar during a clash in the Tel al-Sultan area in Rafah, southern Gaza, He was wearing a military vest, it said.

Israeli media, including the daily Haaretz, reported that Sinwar’s killing “wasn’t preceded by intelligence” suggesting his presence in the area.

Confirmation that the body was indeed of Sinwar was made after DNA and other tests, the Israeli broadcasting authority said.

Hamas has not yet commented on Israeli claims.

Sinwar became the Hamas political chief in August, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new president on July 31.

Sinwar, 61, earlier served as Hamas’ top official in Gaza for two consecutive terms, the first starting in 2017 and the second in 2021. There were multiple attempts on his life in the past.

Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, since October last year.

– ‘Colonial mindset’ –

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, criticized the celebration in Israel. 

There is an “Israeli-Western obsession that you remove the leader, that you cut off the head of the snake, and then the issue is dealt with,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“Resistance is a function of the oppressive conditions and denial of rights under which people are kept — a colonial mindset cannot understand that,” Levy said.

Levy heads the Middle East and North Africa programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Washington Post reporting from Ramallah quoted a senior commander in the Jenin Battalion in the West Bank, saying Sinwar “humiliated the occupiers and the senior Zionist leaders since Oct. 7 until now.”