Hamas confirms death of its leader

The Palestinian militant group Hamas has acknowledged the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, praising him as a “holy warrior” and “fallen martyr.”

The announcement was made by a senior Hamas official, Khalil Hayya, in a televised address on Friday. Sinwar has “sacrificed his life to the cause of our liberation,” Hayya stated, describing the late leader of the group as a “steadfast, brave and intrepid” man.

”He met his end standing brave, with his head held high, holding his firearm, firing until the last breath, until the last moment of his life,” he added.

The death of Sinwar “will only increase the strength and resilience” of Hamas, with the group eager to continue with its activities “until the establishment of the Palestinian state on all Palestinian soil with Jerusalem as its capital,” Hayya claimed.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the death of the Hamas leader on Thursday, releasing drone footage of what it described as Sinwar’s “final moments.” The video purportedly shows Sinwar, badly wounded, inside a bombed-out building somewhere in Gaza. While the Israeli military did not elaborate, local media reports suggested the Hamas chief was killed during an “unplanned operation” in the Rafah area in southern Gaza.

Sinwar had led Hamas in Gaza since early 2017; he assumed full leadership of the group in August after the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran.

Alongside Mohammed Deif, the chief of the military wing of Hamas, Sinwar was widely regarded as the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that prompted the ongoing war. Israel claimed to have killed Deif in an airstrike earlier this year, but the Palestinian group has denied his death.