Yahya Sinwar: How a Chance Encounter Led to the Killing of Israel's Greatest Enemy

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After more than a year of hunting for Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks that sparked Israel's devastating war in Gaza, a chance encounter resulted in the Hamas leader being killed by Israeli troops.

The 62-year-old, who was elected Hamas leader after Israel's assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in July, was at the top of Israel's hit list and was suspected of hiding in the vast network of tunnels built under Gaza in the past two decades, protected by bodyguards and what Israel has repeatedly described as a “human shield of hostages.”

But as Israel's relentless offensive uncovered more and more tunnels, Sinwar reportedly stopped using cellphones, and other communications devices could have allowed Israeli intelligence to locate him.

In announcing his death on Thursday, Israeli officials said he was killed after exiting the network of tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip as he tried to flee to a safer location. That's when he was found by Israeli soldiers patrolling the Tal Al-Sultan suburb of the southern city of Rafah.

He appeared to have only been with two other men when a unit contacted him New York Times by Israeli defense officials when a group of trainee troop commanders happened to meet him during a routine operation on Wednesday.

Late Wednesday in the southern city of Rafah, junior Israeli troops from the 828th Battalion, a mix of inexperienced soldiers and reservists, spotted three suspicious figures going from house to house “on the run,” the military said.

The soldiers shot at the group and apparently injured one of them, who fled alone into a building. They sent a small drone to give chase.

On Thursday, the military released footage from that drone that showed Sinwar sitting in a chair with a serious hand injury and covering his face with a scarf. The film shows him trying to throw a stick at the drone in a futile attempt to knock it down.

“He tried to escape and our forces eliminated him,” Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters on Thursday.

According to Israeli media reports, orders were given to fire tank shells at the building, causing it to collapse.

At this point, however, Sinwar was still only identified as a combatant, and Israeli troops from the 450th Infantry Battalion ordered to storm the building for a closer look. They recognized his resemblance to the Hamas leader and found him with a gun, body armor and 40,000 shekels (£8,250).

Fearing that the body might be booby-trapped with explosives, troops first removed part of his finger and sent it to Israel for examination before bringing his body to Israel.

At the same time, grisly photos of Sinwar's body were leaked online, forcing the military to issue a statement that it was investigating the possibility of the Hamas leader's death. Hours later it was confirmed.

Israel had collected DNA information from Sinwar during the decades he was incarcerated in Israeli prisons before he was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap. His DNA was found in a tunnel several hundred meters from the bodies of six Israeli hostages before his death, which were found six weeks ago, Mr. Hagari said.

“The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF (Israeli military) and the ISA (Shin Bet, the Israeli security service) over the last year and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated restricted Yahya Sinwar's operational freedom of movement one was pursued by the armed forces and led to his elimination,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

While the families of some Israeli hostages demanded an agreement to end the war and release their relatives after Sinwar's death, senior officials appeared to signal their determination to continue the conflict.

“Today evil has suffered a serious blow – the mission before us is still unfinished,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, adding that Israel remained committed to freeing the hostages still in Gaza.

Yoav Gallant, Israel's defense minister, said: “Sinwar died while beaten, pursued and on the run – he died not as a commander, but as someone who only cared about himself.” This is a clear message to all of us Enemies.”