Israel claims Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Israel has said that its forces have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that Sinwar has been killed on Wednesday in southern Gaza.

“After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated,” the Israeli military said.

“The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF [Israeli military] and ISA [Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service] over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination”.

Hamas has not commented on the Israeli claims. Israel has been conducting a war on Gaza since October of last year, killing more than 42,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians. That followed a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which 1,139 people were killed.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also said that Sinwar had been killed, calling it a “great military and moral achievement for Israel”.

“Sinwar’s assassination creates the opportunity for the immediate release of the hostages and to bring about a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza – without Hamas and without Iranian control,” Katz added.

The Israeli army and police had been carrying out DNA checks to confirm Sinwar’s identity after it said that its forces in Gaza had killed three people.

More to come…