Israel says it is investigating whether Hamas’ top leader Sinwar was killed in Gaza

Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel has vowed to kill him

Author of the article:

The Associated Press

Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy And Jack Jeffery

Published Oct 17, 2024  •  2 minute read

Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, in a handout image released by the Israeli army on August 14, 2024. Photo by Handout/Israeli Army/AFP via Getty Images

The Israeli military said Thursday it was looking into whether Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in a military operation in Gaza.

The military said in a statement that three fighters were killed during operations in Gaza, without specifying where or elaborating further. It said the identities of the three were not confirmed yet, but it was “checking the possibility” that one of the three was Sinwar.

Article content

Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel has vowed to kill him since the beginning of its campaign in Gaza. Throughout the war, Sinwar has been in hiding.

For years Hamas’ top figure in Hamas, Sinwar was chosen as its top leader following the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh in July in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran. Israel has also claimed to have killed the head of Hamas’ military wing Mohammed Deif in an airstrike, but the group has said he survived.

The report came as Israeli forces continued a more than week-old major air and ground assault.

The Israeli military said it targeted a command centre run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad inside a school. It provided a list of around a dozen names of people it identified as terrorists who were present when the strike was called in. It was not immediately possible to verify the names.

In a separate development, a building in central Beirut that houses offices of the Al Jazeera news network and the Norwegian Embassy was evacuated after a warning.

Mazen Ibrahim, Al Jazeera’s Lebanon bureau chief, said the building’s administration received three calls telling everyone to leave the building, which he said also houses the embassies of Norway and Azerbaijan, as well as dozens of offices. He said it was unclear who called in the warning.

Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ragnhild Simenstad said the building was evacuated after a “bomb threat,” without elaborating.

Israel has ordered the evacuation of several buildings, as well as entire cities, towns and villages, as it strikes targets linked to Hezbollah.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Article content