Israel probes possibility of Yahya Sinwar’s death in strike: Report

Israel is investigating the possibility that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, was killed in a rocket strike on Saturday that hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, a media report said. The Israeli military said the attack targeted a Hamas command centre, but Palestinian health authorities said that women and children were among the 22 people killed in the strike.
In a report on Sunday, the Times of Israel said that officials were investigating the possibility that Sinwar is dead, following up on military intelligence, as reported by Israeli journalist Ben Caspit.
“The Walla news site notes that the Shin Bet has rejected the report and believes that Sinwar is alive. The intelligence being investigated holds that Sinwar was killed during IDF operations in Gaza”, the news report added.
The Times of Israel added that Caspit reasoned that Sinwar might not be dead looking at his history, when he disappeared after past strikes and speculations of his death started making rounds.
Reacting to speculations around Sinwar’s death, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said in a post on X, that officials with direct knowledge have told him that Jerusalem doesn’t have the information that could confirm the Hamas leader is dead.
Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks on Israel, succeeded as Hamas chief in August this year, after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in an explosion in Iran.
Born in 1962, Sinwar was an early member of Hamas, which was formed in 1987. He led the security arm of the militant group, which worked to get rid of the Israeli spies from the organisation.
He was arrested by Israel in the late 1980s and admitted to killing 12 suspected collaborators, a role that earned him the nickname “The Butcher of Khan Younis.” He was eventually sentenced to 4 life terms for his crimes, which included the killing of 2 Israeli personnel.
In prison, Sinwar organised protests to better the working conditions. He also studied Hebrew and Israeli society.
In 2008, he survived brain cancer after being treated by Israeli doctors.
He was freed from prison in 2011 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an exchange for an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid.
Sinwar, along with Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas’s armed wing, is believed to have orchestrated the surprise October 7 attack on Israel.
The attack claimed the lives of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and led to a war that killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza.