Agencies
Tel Aviv
Israel has said its forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in Gaza. There has been no confirmation from Hamas.
A joint statement from the spokespeople for the Israeli army and domestic security agency Shin Bet said Sinwar was killed on Wednesday during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.
"A force of the 828th Brigade, which operated in the area, identified and eliminated three terrorists. After completing the process of identifying the body, it can now be confirmed that [Sinwar] was eliminated,” the statement read.
That statement followed a statement moments ago from Israel’s foreign minister saying Sinwar had been killed.
In August, Hamas appointed its Gaza leader, Sinwar, as the political chief-at-large to succeed Ismail Haniyeh after the latter’s assassination.
The Gaza-based Palestinian leader was public enemy number one in Israel. So by choosing him as the head of its political bureau, Hamas sent a message of defiance to the Israeli government.
Sinwar had been imprisoned before in Israeli jails. He had a long history of fighting back against Israel, and he was released in a prisoner swap deal in 2011.
Later on, he took leadership of the Hamas movement in Gaza, and he had also been responsible for carrying out plenty of military activities and operations against the Israeli army.