Hamas leader killed in unexpected Israeli shootout
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed on Wednesday. The Israeli army has revealed the details of this operation, stating that Sinwar died in a shootout. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, admitted that although the Hamas leader had been pursued for a long time, the soldiers did not initially know who they were targeting.
Hagari explained that Israeli soldiers were searching the area of the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp near the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. They had received information that senior Hamas commanders were hiding there.
The soldiers learned about three militants moving between buildings and opened fire on them. Sinwar sought refuge in the ruins of one of the houses.
"He tried to escape and our forces eliminated him," added Hagari. The Israeli army published footage from a drone that located Sinwar. It shows a masked, wounded man attempting to knock down the drone by throwing a long object at it.
According to the media, the building was also shelled by a tank.
Identified by teeth and DNA
Initially, Sinwar was identified as a Hamas militant; a weapon, bulletproof vest, and 40,000 shekels in cash (approximately CAD 13,900) were found near his body, Hagari said. Media reported that the deceased's identity was confirmed after dental and DNA tests, using documentation from the time when Sinwar was imprisoned in an Israeli jail.
The Hamas leader did not perish in a planned and targeted attack, unlike many other leaders of the organization, including the military wing commander Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an air raid on July 13.
"Behaved like a fugitive"
However, Hagari emphasized that the military had pursued Sinwar for months, and these actions gradually restricted the area where he could stay. Soldiers were sealing off streets and destroying tunnels, forcing the Hamas leader to move within an increasingly smaller area, causing him to "behave like a fugitive" and ultimately make the mistake of leaving the tunnel and entering one of the destroyed apartments, added another Israeli military spokesperson, Doron Spielman.
According to Hagari, Sinwar had been in the area where he was killed for some time, moving from house to house and probably trying to escape to "safer areas located to the north." The military official added that the army is still searching for the Hamas leader's brother, Muhammad Sinwar, as well as other commanders of this terrorist group and will continue operations in the Gaza Strip.
Journalist Nurit Johanan from the public station KAN reported that a Palestinian passport issued in the name of a teacher from Rafah, who taught at one of the schools run by the UN relief agency UNRWA, was found on Sinwar. The document had been invalid for over seven years.
