Israel investigates if it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza : NPR

The Israeli navy says it’s checking the chance that the chief of Hamas was killed throughout an operation in Gaza.

The navy says three militants had been killed in a constructing and that the navy and Israel’s Shin Wager home intelligence company are wanting into whether or not one among them was Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar is Israel’s No. 1 most needed man in Gaza — the Israeli authorities believes he’s the mastermind behind Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.

Israel presumes Sinwar has been hiding in tunnels, with some analysts speculating he surrounded himself with Israeli hostages to guard him from assassination makes an attempt.

The navy says there have been no indicators of Israeli hostages within the space of the constructing the place the three militants had been killed and that troops are working within the space with “warning.”

An official accustomed to the matter talking anonymously to expose extra particulars stated the militants had been killed Wednesday in an Israeli firefight in southern Gaza. The official stated a physique is being checked for a match with Sinwar’s DNA.

Sinwar was the chief of Hamas in Gaza when the Palestinian militant group led a shock assault on Israel simply over a 12 months in the past, killing some 1,200 individuals and taking round 250 hostages, in response to Israeli officers. About 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza, round a 3rd of whom are believed to be lifeless.

He was appointed the chief of the whole group after Israel killed his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Tehran in July. The Israeli navy additionally stated it had killed the pinnacle of Hamas’ navy wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July. The Israeli navy had earlier killed Hamas’ deputy political chief Salah Arouri in a bombing in Beirut in January.

Born on Oct. 29, 1962, in response to Hamas, Sinwar helped discovered the group’s inner safety equipment within the late Nineteen Eighties. He earned a nickname amongst Palestinians: the “butcher of Khan Younis,” the place he grew up within the southern Gaza Strip.

Sinwar was seen as a hard-liner inside Hamas, much less prone to attain a ceasefire take care of Israel than different extra pragmatic leaders. He was believed to have been directing operations from the group’s in depth tunnel community beneath the Gaza Strip, speaking with the surface world via handwritten notes delivered by couriers to keep away from Israeli air strikes which have killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians within the besieged coastal enclave.

It is a growing story that will probably be up to date.