Hamas leader’s death marks ‘beginning of end’ of Gaza war, Netanyahu says. “Evil has received a severe blow”

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Israel announced Thursday, October 17, that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, considered the “mastermind” of the October 7 attack against Israel, was killed during an operation in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assuring that his death marks “the beginning of the end” of the war in Gaza, reports AFP.

The 61-year-old radical activist has led the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza since 2017 before being named the political leader of Hamas in early August following the death of Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran on July 31 in a attack attributed to Israel.

The army and domestic intelligence services “confirm that after a year-long mission” the soldiers “eliminated Yahya Sinwar (…) during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip” on Wednesday, the army said.

“Yahya Sinwar is dead,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an English-language video message broadcast overnight.

“This does not mean the end of the war in Gaza, but the beginning of the end,” he stressed.

Israeli forces have been operating “in recent weeks” in the area following information indicating the likely presence of senior Hamas officials, the Israeli military said.

They “eliminated three terrorists”, and the identification procedures through DNA analysis “confirmed that the Hamas leader was eliminated”.

The Israeli military released a short drone video showing a wounded man, which it presented as footage of the Hamas leader just before he was killed.

The death of Yahya Sinwar, considered the “mastermind” of the unprecedented attack launched by the Palestinian movement on October 7, 2023 on Israeli territory and which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, was not immediately confirmed by Hamas.

This is “an important step” in the decline of Hamas, Netanyahu said late Thursday. “Evil has been dealt a severe blow, but the task ahead is not yet over,” he added.

The Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, General Herzi Halevi, declared that the war “will not end” before the capture of all the perpetrators of the October 7 attack and the return of “all the hostages” held in Gaza.