Most recently, Sinwar was the sole head of Hamas. He managed to evade the Israeli army’s grasp for over a year. What’s next for the Islamist organization?
The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has confirmed the death of its leader Jihia al-Sinwar. According to the military, Israeli soldiers killed the mastermind of the massacre on October 7, 2023 in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The deputy head of the Islamist organization’s political bureau, Chalil al-Haja, told the Hamas-affiliated Al Aksa TV channel that he mourned the “martyr” Sinwar. Haja is also Hamas’s main negotiator outside the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar was considered the mastermind of the bloody attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which Islamist terrorists killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 to the Gaza Strip. Immediately after the massacre, Israel’s army and secret services began the hunt for the chief planner. Sinwar is said to have hidden for a long time in the extensive tunnel system under the Gaza Strip – allegedly always surrounded by hostages as a human shield.
Al-Haja rejected calls for the immediate release of the Israeli hostages. This can only happen if Israel ends its “aggression” against Gaza, withdraws completely from it and releases Palestinian prisoners, al-Haja said.
According to the Israeli army, Sinwar was killed in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. After he and two other gunmen were discovered by chance, Sinwar hid in a house and an Israeli tank fired a grenade into the building, the newspaper “The Times of Israel” reported.
The military released footage from a drone showing a hooded and dust-covered man – supposedly Sinwar – still alive, sitting on an armchair in a bombed-out building. As the drone approaches, he throws a stick at the remote-controlled aircraft. At this point the video stops. Israeli media later published photos of what was believed to be Sinwar’s body lying among the rubble with severe head injuries.
Sinwar had been Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip since 2017. After Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniya in July of this year, he took over the entire leadership of the organization. There was speculation as to whether his brother Mohammed would follow in his footsteps.
