Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
He has been credited as the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that led to the deaths of 1,200 people, the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history.
“The master murderer Yahya Sinwar, who is responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement. “This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of extreme Islam led by Iran.”
Hamas Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh take part in the funeral of senior militant Mazen Fuqaha in Gaza City Mar. 25, 2017.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
The Israel Defense Forces initially said they were “checking the possibility” that the Hamas leader was among three militants killed in an operation in Gaza and were working to confirm identification through dental images and DNA testing.
Katz said Sinwar’s death “creates a possibility for the immediate release of the abductees and to bring about a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza — without Hamas and without Iranian control.”
The 62-year-old had served as Hamas’ leader in Gaza since 2017 and assumed leadership of the group’s political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran this July.
President Joe Biden had been briefed on Israel’s investigation into whether Israel killed Sinwar, according to a senior administration official.
The Israelis also notified U.S. Department of Defense officials, including Secretary Lloyd Austin, about Sinwar’s potential death, a U.S. defense official said earlier Thursday per a pool report.
The 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, Oct. 1, 2022.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
In 1989, an Israeli court sentenced Sinwar to four life sentences for his role in killing suspected Palestinian informers and plotting to murder two Israeli soldiers.
Sinwar spent the following 22 years in prison before becoming one of more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees released in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Guy Davies contributed to this report.
