Top Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar Killed in Israeli Strike on Gaza

Israel has claimed its forces have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

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Israel has claimed its forces have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an attack in the Southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military on Thursday announced Sinwar’s death, but Hamas has not yet commented on the claim.

According to the Israeli military statement, Sinwar was killed on Wednesday after soldiers “eliminated three fighters”.

In August, Hamas appointed it’s Gaza leader, Sinwar, as the group’s political bureau head to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated during a visit to Iran on July 31.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has “settled its account” with Sinwar but the “war is not yet ended.”

Netanyahu said in televised remarks that “light is prevailing over darkness” in the region and that Sinwar’s death is an “important landmark” in the decline of the group. He said, “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army”, while Benny Gantz, chairman of Israel’s National Unity Party, congratulated the Israeli military.

“This is an important achievement with a clear message – we will pursue our enemies to the end, anytime and anywhere, ” Gantz wrote on social media platform X.

He said the Israeli military “will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip for years to come, and now the series of achievements and the elimination of Sinwar must be taken advantage of to bring about the return of the abductees and the replacement of Hamas’s rule.”

President Joe Bidden said that for the Israeli people, Sinwar’s death was comparable to Osama Bin Laden’s death for Americans in 2011.

But US officials are reticent to make any predictions about what that will ultimately mean for the volatile region.

Netanyahu’s phone call with Biden on Thursday was brief, according to the official, and the prime minister made clear that while hostages must come out of Gaza, he would only end the war under terms that he could accept.

Hezbollah announced a “new and escalating phase” in its war with Israel on Thursday. The Iran-backed militant group said it has killed 55 Israeli soldiers and injured 500 since the start of Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s statement on the Telegram app did not mention Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the Israeli military said was killed on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip.

The world is “now a better place” without Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Defense Forces, Herzi Halevi said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called Sinwar’s death a “major achievement in counterterrorism.”. He added that he hoped the death brings “some small measure of justice and solace to the families and the loved ones of the many victims of Sinwar’s premeditated cruelty.” Echoing what President Joe Biden and others have said, Austin reiterated that now is the time to reach a ceasefire agreement that secures the release of the remaining hostages, including American citizens.

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