The leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar is dead, according to the Israeli army.
The IDF stated that he was killed after an operation following a random check and identification of by Israeli soldiers in Rafah.
Confirmation of the news comes from the Israeli media, such as Channel 12, which has been privy to transcripts of the soldiers’ conversations with their commanders shortly after the clash.
Among the dead from this particular operation are reportedly three people. In addition to the Hamas leader, another is his brother and successor, Mohammed Sinwar.
Soldiers conducted a rapid DNA test on the spot with the results coming out about two hours later confirming it was the Hamas leader.
This, it can be seen from the photo released by Israeli intelligence in which while Sinwar’s body has been found, one of the soldiers is holding a sample of Yahya Sinwar’s genetic material.
Sinwar had taken over the reins of Hamas on August 31 when the organization’s de facto political leader, Ismail Haniyah was killed in an explosion in an apartment in Tehran.
Sinwar, who was nicknamed by Israeli intelligence the “Gaza rat”and had not been seen in public since last September, had escaped death dozens of times in his long conflict relationship with Israel, a fact that had given him “heroic” status within Hamas.