By JOSEF FEDERMAN, MELANIE LIDMAN and WAFAA SHURAFA
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of final yr’s assault on Israel that sparked the warfare, the army mentioned Thursday. Troops appeared to have run throughout him unknowingly in a battle, solely to find afterwards {that a} physique within the rubble was Israel’s most-wanted man.
Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores simply over a yr after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 individuals in Israel and kidnapped 250 others in an assault that surprised the nation. Additionally they introduced it as a turning level within the marketing campaign to destroy Hamas, urging the group to give up and launch some 100 hostages nonetheless in Gaza.
“Hamas will not rule Gaza. That is the beginning of the day after Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned.
U.S. officers expressed hopes for a cease-fire with Sinwar out of the image. However eliminating him might not finish the devastating warfare, throughout which Israel has destroyed a lot of the Gaza Strip and killed greater than 42,000 Palestinians. The Gaza Well being Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants however says greater than half of these killed had been ladies and youngsters.
Sinwar’s demise is a crippling blow to Hamas, however the group, which receives help from Iran, has confirmed resilient to previous losses of leaders. There was no rapid affirmation from Hamas of Sinwar’s demise.
Netanyahu has mentioned Israel will maintain preventing till all of the hostages are free, and that it’s going to maintain management over Gaza lengthy sufficient to make sure Hamas doesn’t rearm — an efficient occupation that raises the opportunity of months and even years of continued preventing.
Earlier this month Israel opened a brand new entrance in its warfare with Hezbollah, stepping up bombardment in Lebanon and launching a floor marketing campaign in opposition to the Iran-backed militia after a yr of buying and selling cross-border hearth.
In his speech about Sinwar’s demise, Netanyahu mentioned, “Our warfare isn’t but ended.”
President Joe Biden mentioned Sinwar’s demise opens the best way for “a political settlement that gives a greater future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” He mentioned he would speak with Netanyahu “to debate the pathway for bringing the hostages house to their households, and for ending this warfare as soon as and for all.”
Sinwar has been Hamas’ chief contained in the Gaza Strip for years. He was elevated to the group’s high management place in July after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an obvious Israeli strike within the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Up to now months, Israel has eradicated a string of senior figures from Hamas and Hezbollah with airstrikes. Israel has claimed to have killed the top of Hamas’ army wing, Mohammed Deif, however the group has mentioned he survived.
However in Sinwar’s case, troops discovered him by probability.
Israel army spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari mentioned that Israeli forces recognized three Hamas militants operating from constructing to constructing in Gaza’s southernmost metropolis, Rafah. The troops tried to shoot them earlier than they ran inside a constructing.
The Israeli army launched drone video exhibiting what it mentioned had been Sinwar’s final moments: In a room wrecked by shelling, a person sat in a chair, his face coated with a material, probably to cover his id. The video confirmed the person, with one wounded hand, throwing a stick on the drone.
The army then fired a further shell on the constructing, inflicting it to break down and killing Sinwar, Hagari mentioned. He mentioned Sinwar was discovered with a bulletproof vest, grenades, and 40,000 shekels ($10,707).
A few of Sinwar’s DNA had beforehand been present in tunnels close to the place troops discovered the our bodies of six hostages on the finish of August, Hagari mentioned. The army believes weeks of searches within the space had pushed Sinwar to return out of hiding, he mentioned.
Photographs circulating on-line confirmed the physique of a person resembling Sinwar with a gaping head wound, wearing a military-style vest, half buried within the rubble of a destroyed constructing. The safety official confirmed the images had been taken by Israeli safety officers on the scene. The official spoke on situation of anonymity due to the continuing investigation.
The army mentioned three militants had been killed within the operation. Police mentioned one in all them was confirmed as Sinwar by dental data, fingerprints and DNA checks. Sinwar was imprisoned by Israel from the late Nineteen Eighties till 2011, and through that point he underwent therapy for mind most cancers — leaving Israeli authorities with in depth medical data.
Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant addressed Hamas fighters, saying it “is time to exit, launch the hostages, increase your arms, give up.”
Netanyahu mentioned Israel had “settled its account” with the person behind the Oct. 7 assault, and that “evil has suffered a heavy blow.” However, he added, “the duty earlier than us isn’t but full.”
He mentioned anybody in Hamas who surrendered weapons and assisted with the return of the hostages can be allowed to depart Gaza safely. A few third of the captives nonetheless in Gaza are believed to be lifeless.
A whole lot of individuals demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening for the discharge of the hostages after information of Sinwar’s demise emerged. Some carried indicators that learn “Sinwar’s finish, finish the warfare.”
Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin, Ofer Kalderon, is being held hostage in Gaza, mentioned he was completely happy that Sinwar was lifeless however “scared concerning the 101 hostages. … They may homicide them or do one thing due to the homicide of Sinwar.”
Within the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, one Palestinian girl displaced from her house within the north mentioned she hoped Sinwar’s demise would deliver an finish to Israel’s marketing campaign. “What extra targets have they got than that? Sufficient. We wish to return,” mentioned the lady, Umm Mohammed.
Some praised Sinwar as an emblem of resistance in opposition to Israel’s decadeslong occupation of the Palestinians within the West Financial institution. Ahmed Hamdouna, who additionally fled his house in northern Gaza, mentioned Hamas would have the ability to exchange him. “After the chief, a thousand leaders will come. After the person, a thousand males will come,” he mentioned.
For greater than every week. Israeli forces have been waging a floor marketing campaign in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying they’re battling Hamas fighters who’ve as soon as once more regrouped there.
On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a college sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabaliya, killing not less than 28 individuals, in keeping with Gaza’s Well being Ministry. Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Gaza Well being Ministry’s emergency unit within the north, mentioned the lifeless included a girl and 4 youngsters.
The Israeli army mentioned it focused a command heart run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad inside the college. It offered an inventory of round a dozen names of individuals it recognized as militants who had been current when the strike was known as in. It was not instantly potential to confirm the names.
Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and colleges sheltering displaced individuals in Gaza. The Israeli army says it carries out exact strikes on militants and tries to keep away from harming civilians, however its strikes usually kill ladies and youngsters.
___
Sami Magdy reported from Cairo. AP writers Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, contributed to this report.
___
Observe AP’s warfare protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Initially Revealed: