 "A pro-Palestinian protester holds up a portrait of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar outside of a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris in New York City, US, August 14, 2024. File Image/Reuters")
The Israeli foreign ministry on Thursday (October 17) said that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, has been ’eliminated'.
The announcement was made via the state of Israel’s official handle on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The account is run by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The post read, “A year ago on the holiday of Sukkot, Yahya Sinwar orchestrated the horrific October 7th Massacre in which more than 1,200 Israeli men, women and children were butchered. Today, one year later, he was eliminated by Israeli forces.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also confirmed the assassination. “The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was eliminated… by IDF (Israeli military) soldiers,” he said in a statement.
IDF also said “after a year-long pursuit”, soldiers “eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organisation, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip” on Wednesday (October 16).
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More ShortsEarlier in the day, the IDF, in a post of X, had said that it was ‘checking’ whether Sinwar was among those killed in a firefight carried out on Thursday in Gaza.
Sinwar is accused by Israel of being the mastermind behind Hamas’ October 7 attack last year that led to the death of over 1,200 Israelis. Israel’s war in Gaza Strip in response to that event has led to at least 42,438 deaths and injured at least 99,246 Palestinians.
So far, Hamas has not confirmed Sinwar’s death so far.
With inputs from agencies