“After a year-long pursuit, IDF soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday (Wednesday), October 16, 2024,” the IDF and Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency said in a joint statement.
Yahya Sinwar was responsible for the murder and kidnapping of several Israelis, planned and carried out the October 7th Massacre, and propagated his homicidal ideology both before and during the conflict,” the statement continued. “Yahya Sinwar was killed after a year of hiding underground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip and above ground behind Gaza’s civilian population.
Following the confirmation of Sinwar’s death, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday that although Hamas had taken a “heavy blow,” the war in Gaza was still ongoing. Netanyahu went on to say that “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza” and that “you, the people of Gaza, have a chance to finally escape the oppression of Hamas as this is the dawn of the day after Hamas.”
