Live updates: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed in Gaza, Israel says
Live updates: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed in Gaza, Israel says
Sinwar was born in a refugee camp and spent years in an Israeli prison before rising to the top of the Iran-backed militant group.
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Israeli official confirms Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza
Updated Oct. 17, 2024, 10:20 AM MST
By NBC News
What we know
- Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused of being the architect of the Oct. 7 terror attack, has been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced today.
- Sinwar, who was born in a refugee camp and spent years in an Israeli prison before rising to the top of the Iran-backed militant group, was described as a “dead man walking” by the Israeli military in the days after the attacks.
- After Sinwar’s body was found and before he was definitively identified, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in a post on X: “‘You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.’ — Leviticus 26. Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them.”
5m ago / 10:20 AM MST
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Sinwar’s death a message to others to ‘surrender,’ defense minister says
Paul Goldman
Reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel
Israel has brought justice to its citizens by killing Sinwar, the man who orchestrated the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed 1,200 people last year, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in an address today.
“Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run — he didn’t die as a commander, but as someone who only cared for himself,” Gallant said.
The defense minister noted that Sinwar is the latest in a string of assassinations of both Hamas and Hezbollah leadership in recent months. He called it a “clear message” to the residents of Gaza and the rest of Hamas’ militants.
“Go out with the hostages, free them, and surrender,” Gallant said.
10m ago / 10:15 AM MST
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Sinwar killed after tracking down Hamas in southern Gaza, IDF says
Yahya Sinwar has spent the last year hiding among civilians in Gaza both above ground and below, in Hamas’ network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said in a statement confirming his death.
The military’s southern command followed intelligence that led to a suspected location of three senior Hamas leaders, according to the IDF.
“The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination,” the statement said.
12m ago / 10:13 AM MST
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Sinwar’s death is happy news for Israelis but it doesn’t change anything, researcher says

News that Sinwar had been killed may be “a very happy moment for every Israeli,” though it is unlikely to change things for the hostages, a researcher Hebrew University of Jerusalem told NBC News shortly before his death was confirmed.
“The people of Israel are thinking about them,” said Ronni Shaked, a research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute at the university. “But Israel is not going to find some new way to bring them back now because it’s not just in the hands of Sinwar.”
Shaked, who met Sinwar and the former Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh years ago, said Hamas can continue without its recent leadership, noting that Hamas only became more fundamentalist after its original leaders were killed in 2004..
Without a strategic plan how to get out of Gaza, it will be “a disaster,” Shaked said. “The only way to move Hamas aside is to bring an alternative Palestinian regime to Gaza.”Show more
27m ago / 9:58 AM MST
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Congressional briefings being held over Sinwar news

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Ali Vitali, Frank Thorp V, Julie Tsirkin and Kyle Stewart
House Speaker Mike Johnson was briefed on the news that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had been killed, a source directly familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has also been briefed, a person familiar with the briefing also confirmed. Representatives for both Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on whether they had been briefed.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner was also briefed by CIA Director William Burns about the operation, a spokesperson for Warner said.
Separately, bipartisan staff for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been briefed by administration officials, according to another source with direct knowledge.
31m ago / 9:55 AM MST
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Sinwar killing a ‘Pyrric victory’ for Israel, Rashid Khalidi says

Sinwar’s killing would be a “Pyrric victory” for Israel, Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Stu