Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in combat
New Delhi: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the group’s cross-border raid in 2023 that became the deadliest day in Israel’s history, has been killed in combat, Khalil al-Hayya, Gaza Hamas deputy chief and the group’s chief negotiator, said on Friday.
Sinwar’s death, which comes after Israel killed other Hamas leaders and commanders, will be a major setback for the Islamist group, which has faced relentless airstrikes since Israel invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli data.
It dragged about 250 people back into Gaza, creating a hostage crisis for the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to dismantle Hamas.
Sinwar will be remembered among Palestinians as a ruthless enforcer who collaborated with Israel and a stern enemy of the country that imprisoned him for many years. On August 6, Sinwar was named the group’s supreme leader, succeeding former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.
Widely known as the architect of the October 7, 2023 attack, the most devastating incident for Israel in decades, Sinwar has been in Gaza since the beginning of the war, thwarting Israeli attempts to kill him.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar, 62, was elected leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2017. The controversial leader, who spent half his adult life in Israeli jails, was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive after Haniyeh’s killing.
Won’t release hostages: Hamas
Hamas said today it will not release the hostages until Israel ends its war on Gaza, withdraws from the territory and releases imprisoned Palestinians. Khalil al-Haya said in a video statement that the hostages “will not return… until the aggression against our people in Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from there and our heroic prisoners are released from the occupation’s prisons,” news agency AFP reported.
With inputs from Reuters and AFP
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