Members of Israel’s security cabinet have been informed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the devastating Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, is very likely dead, two officials with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Two of Israel’s broadcasters, KAN and N12 News also cited Israeli officials as saying Sinwar was dead. The Israeli military said Sinwar may have been hit in an operation in the Gaza Strip that it said had targeted three militants.
Israel has killed several commanders of Hamas in Gaza as well as senior figures of Hezbollah in Lebanon, including its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah, dealing heavy blows to its arch-foes.
Hamas has not commented on the fate of Sinwar, who was recently elevated to paramount leader of the Palestinian militant group after running its operations in Gaza.
If his death is confirmed it will dial up hostilities in the Middle East where fears of a wider conflict have grown as Israel plans its response to the Oct. 1 missile attack carried out by Iran after Israeli airstrikes on Iranian-allied militants.
It would also represent a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, has been on Israel’s wanted list ever since.
The attacks marked the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded by launching a massive offensive on Hamas-run Gaza, killing more than 42,400 people and displacing most of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Sinwar, who made his name by punishing Palestinian collaborators with Israel, has so far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.
Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Tensions were already running high in the oil-producing Middle East where Israel is preparing to retaliate against Iran after the Islamic Republic unleashed a barrage of missiles on Oct. 1.
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Israel earlier on Thursday against attacking the Islamic Republic.
“We tell you (Israel) that if you commit any aggression against any point we will painfully attack the same point of yours,” Hossein Salami said in a televised speech, adding that Iran can penetrate Israel’s defences.
There has been speculation that Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, as it has long threatened to do, and other options include attacks on its vital oil sites.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, on a Middle East tour, met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, with Sisi reiterating Egypt’s call to avoid an expansion of the conflict, the Egyptian presidency said.
WAR ON SEVERAL FRONTS
The war in Gaza shows no sign of easing as Israel carries out relentless airstrikes and ground operations to try and reach Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas.
In northern Gaza on Thursday, Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians including children at a school in the Jabalia camp that is sheltering displaced people, a Gaza health ministry official told Reuters.
Israel’s military said dozens of militants were at the site and it conducted a precise strike on a meeting point for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group inside the compound. Hamas denied it used the school.
Israel also launched a ground and air campaign in Lebanon at the start of the month to dismantle Hezbollah after a year during which the Iran-backed militant group fired across the border in support of Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli operations in Lebanon have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the health ministry, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced. The death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes hundreds of women and children.
Around 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed over the same period, according to Israel.
Abdelnaser, a man displaced from Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold which Israel has repeatedly bombed, was on the waterfront early on Thursday morning.
“War has become normal for us. We know that every 10 years Lebanon gets built, and every 10 years it gets destroyed again,” he said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to northern Israel near the border, said Israel would not halt its assault on Hezbollah to allow negotiations.
“We will hold negotiations only under fire. I said this on day one, I said it in Gaza and I am saying it here,” he said according to a statement from his office.
As well as Hezbollah, Iran-backed groups including Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq have carried out attacks in the Middle East in support of Hamas.
The U.S said on Wednesday it struck five underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the latest in a series of U.S. attacks on Houthi-linked targets.
