The death of the leader Hamas and mastermind of the attacks of October 7, 2023, Yahya Sinwarmarks the “beginning of the end of the war” in Gaza, in the words of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. However, the president has assured that “the mission” has not yet concluded.
Whatever happens, what is clear is that Sinwar’s death leaves Hamas deeply shaken, and the international community agrees that his figure was “an obstacle” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.
The terrorist leader became one of Israel’s major targets on October 7, and his whereabouts have been the focus of great speculation because He had not appeared in public precisely since that day..
The only image that could have been had of him at this time was released by the Israeli Army in February, in a video from a surveillance camera located in a tunnel in Khan Yunis (Gaza) in which he was supposedly identified as fleeing with his family.
And, while it is true that the Hamas leader was Israel’s main ‘obsession’, it is no less true that His death this Thursday is more a stroke of luck than a prepared operation. The Hebrew armed forces have made no secret of it: they had no idea that Sinwar was in the building that troops attacked in Rafah.
A building attacked by the presence of militiamen
The Army had one objective that day: the organization of an operation against a housing block where it knew there were Hamas militiamen. The troops attacked and killed several terrorists. To inspect the area after the attack, they used a drone and in one of the rooms they found a badly injured man sitting in an armchair among the rubble that he had his head covered with a kufiya (the traditional Palestinian scarf) and that, at one point, he tried to scare away the device with a stick.
They did not suspect it at the time, but that man was Sinwar, as Israel reported hours later. “Sinwar was hiding in an area that our forces had long surrounded. We didn’t know it was therebut we continue to operate with determination. Sinwar fled towards one of the buildings. “Our forces used a drone to inspect the area,” said Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari.
After finding him, a group of soldiers went to the specific place where he was and ended his life. They then recorded him: in his possession he had “a pistol and 40,000 shekels“, almost 10,000 euros. From the images they had of him, they suspected that he could be the leader of Hamas.
That was the news that emerged early this Thursday afternoon: the Army reported that it had indications that it could have killed Yahya Sinwar. It had to be checked. It is after searching his body that they decide to take him DNA samples and cutting off a finger to compare the evidence at a forensic institute, as appears in some gloomy images that have emerged on social networks.
After checking it in a database that collected different samples of the Hamas leader, since He was imprisoned in Israel from 1989 to 2011 —when he was released as part of an exchange agreed to achieve the surrender of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit—, they had confirmation: it was him.
The autopsy, as published by Israeli media, has revealed that The primary cause of death appears to be a long-range gunshot wound to the head.executed with a sniper. In any case, various projectile impacts on his body and shrapnel fragments have also been observed after a tank fired at the house where he was staying.
“A model for children”
Sinwar’s death has provoked reaction from both Hamas and Tehran, which have threatened to avenge her. Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations warned this Thursday that his death will serve to “strengthen” the “spirit of resistance” of the Palestinian population against Israel.
“As long as the occupation and aggression exist, the resistance will endure, because the martyr is still alive and is a source of inspiration,” said the diplomatic representation of Tehran in a message published on its official X account. Finally, it stressed that “will become a model for young people and childrenwho will continue their path towards the liberation of Palestine”.
