Middle East
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, killed in Gaza, Israeli official confirms
The Washington Post
October 17, 2024
Yahya Sinwar chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (Adel Hana/AP)
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza after eluding their forces for more than a year. His body was identified after DNA testing in Israel, said an Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Hamas did not immediately confirm his death.
On Tel Aviv’s promenade Thursday evening, people walked and exercised as usual. Only a boy on a scooter shouting, “Bye-bye, Sinwar,” provided any indication of the mood in Israel.
Sinwar, along with other Hamas leaders, was at the top of Israel’s hit list and is thought to have spent much of the past year hiding in the winding network of underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
The death is the most significant assassination by Israel of a Hamas official since it killed Mohammed Deif, the group’s military leader, and Ismail Haniyeh, its political leader, this summer. Sinwar replaced Haniyeh as Hamas’s political leader after the latter was killed in Tehran.
As it was evaluating whether Sinwar had been killed, Israel sought to quell fears that hostages may have been hurt in the military operation. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Netanyahu had instructed the military to tell the hostages’ families that there were “no signs of harm to the hostages in the reported encounter.”
Reached before the confirmation, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an umbrella group for the families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, said it welcomed news of Sinwar’s possible death. It urged the Israeli government to use the “major achievement” as leverage to secure the return of the hostages.
“This military success,” the group said, should be “leveraged into an immediate deal for their return.”
One Palestinian in Gaza who has been displaced multiple times during the war said “many citizens are happy” about the news.
“They believe he played a significant role in the destruction in Gaza, and this could mark the end of the war,” said the Palestinian, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
If Sinwar is confirmed to be dead, it could ease some of the challenges the Biden administration faces around its Gaza policy just weeks ahead of the U.S. election.
U.S. officials have said that Sinwar has been a major roadblock to a hostage deal in recent weeks, with Hamas no longer engaging in cease-fire talks. (Officials have also noted other moments in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the obstacle to a cease-fire agreement.) Although the Biden administration’s assessment of Netanyahu’s motivations has changed over time, U.S. officials have generally expressed skepticism that Israel would permanently end its Gaza offensive with Sinwar alive.
These officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic talks.
The Biden administration has expressed hope that if Sinwar has been killed, it would enable Netanyahu to declare victory in Gaza and bring Israeli operations there to a close. Administration officials have also said that it could finally clear the way to a hostage deal.
That could ease the daily drumbeat of grim headlines from civilian casualties in Gaza, although with Israeli operations against Hezbollah still underway in Lebanon and more than 42,000 Palestinians already dead, opinions about Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, may already be fixed — particularly in Arab American strongholds in Michigan, where opinion polls show a narrowly divided race.