A unit of Israeli trainee soldiers came upon Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, while on an operation in southern Gaza, defense officials said.
For over a year, Israel’s security establishment, backed by the United States, dedicated vast resources and gathered mounds of intelligence in its hunt for Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who was an architect of the Oct. 7 attacks.
But in the end, a unit of trainee squad commanders unexpectedly encountered Mr. Sinwar while on an operation in southern Gaza, according to four Israeli defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Where was Sinwar found?
The Israeli unit was on patrol in southern Gaza on Wednesday when the Israeli soldiers came upon a small group of fighters, the officials said. The soldiers — backed by drones — engaged in a firefight, and three Palestinian militants were killed.
During the battle, Israeli fire brought down part of a building where the militants had taken cover, two officials said. As the dust cleared and they began searching the building, the Israeli soldiers noticed that one of the bodies bore a shocking resemblance to the Hamas leader, the three officials said.
It was a seemingly unlikely place to find him. Israeli and U.S. intelligence had long assessed that Mr. Sinwar — fearful for his own safety — had been hiding deep underground, surrounding himself with Israeli hostages to avoid assassination.
How did he die?
Photographs obtained by The New York Times, some of which later circulated online, show the body of a man with facial features strongly resembling Mr. Sinwar. The man’s body has several severe wounds, including to the head and leg. The photographs show that the body has several features matching those seen in archival footage of Mr. Sinwar, including distinctive moles near his eyes and crooked teeth.
Hours after the fight was over, the soldiers approached the bodies cautiously. The area was still littered with explosive devices, two officials said. They also thought that the body of one fighter, later identified as Mr. Sinwar, was booby-trapped.
They found money and weaponry alongside the militants, according to one of the officials, who shared photos of the scene, including some in which the items were on display.
The troops, one of the officials said, were also concerned that there might be hostages in the area as well, but none were found with the fighters. There is no evidence that any of the hostages still held in Gaza were harmed during the battle, the Israeli military said.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli military, after completing its identification process, announced that Mr. Sinwar was dead.
How has Hamas responded?
On Friday, Hamas confirmed Mr. Sinwar’s death. “He died fighting and confronting the occupation army to his final moments,” his longtime deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, who is in exile in Qatar, said in an address mourning him on official Hamas television.
But he gave little indication that Hamas would be willing to make concessions to Israel that could end the war in Gaza.
“We are continuing Hamas’s path,” he said, adding that Mr. Sinwar’s “banner will not fall.”
Not the be-all and end-all
Killing Yahya Sinwar is Israel’s biggest victory so far in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
His death is a serious blow for Hamas, the organisation he turned into a fighting force that inflicted the biggest defeat on the state of Israel in its history.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, praised the soldiers and made clear that however big a victory, it was not the end of the war.
“Today we made clear once again what happens to those who harm us. Today we once again showed the world the victory of good over evil.
“But the war, my dear ones, is not over yet. It is difficult, and it is costing us dearly.”
“Great challenges still lie ahead of us. We need endurance, unity, courage, and steadfastness. Together we will fight, and with God’s help – together we will win.”
The prime minister has repeated his war aims many times – destroying Hamas as a military and political force and bringing the hostages home.
Neither has been achieved, despite a year of war that has killed at least 42,000 Palestinians and left much of Gaza in ruins.
But the remaining hostages are not free and Hamas is fighting and sometimes killing Israeli troops.
Killing Sinwar was the victory Israel wanted. But until Netanyahu can claim that the other war aims have been accomplished, the war, as he says, will go on.
Yahya Sinwar was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. He was five years old when it was captured by Israel from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war.
His family were among more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes by Israeli forces in the 1948 war in which Israel won its independence.
His family came from the town now known as Ashkelon, which is close to the northern border of the Gaza Strip.
In his 20s, he was convicted by Israel of killing four Palestinian informers. During 22 years in jail he learnt Hebrew, studied his enemy and believed that he worked out how to fight them. His time in jail also meant Israel had his dental records and a sample of his DNA, which meant that they could identify his body.
Sinwar was released as one of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who were swapped in 2011 for a single Israel soldier, Gilad Shalit.
On 7 October last year, in a meticulously planned series of attacks, Sinwar and his men inflicted Israel’s worst-ever defeat – and a collective trauma that is still deeply felt.
The killing of around 1,200 Israelis, the hostage-taking and the celebrations of their enemies recalled for many Israelis the Nazi holocaust.
Sinwar’s own experience in a prisoner swap must have convinced him of the value and power of taking hostages.
In Tel Aviv families of the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza – Israel says half of them might already be dead – gathered in the square in which they have been gathering for a year, urging the Israeli government to launch a new negotiation to get their people home.
New York Times/BBC
