Editor’s note: The Israeli military said shortly before 1 p.m. EDT Thursday that Yahya Sinwar was killed during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip the previous day.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it was investigating whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in a recent operation.
Three militants were killed in Gaza, but their identities are not yet confirmed, Israel said in a post on the social platform X, adding it was working to confirm them.
NewsNation’s Robert Sherman confirmed with Israeli sources that Sinwar was among those killed, following an initial DNA check.
CNN reported that Israeli forces encountered the man believed to be Sinwar during routine military operations and engaged him, along with two other militants.
“Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in a post on X, as news of Sinwar’s possible death was breaking.
Sinwar is the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, while Hamas fighters took another 250 hostages.
He has been elusive since the war started following the Oct. 7 attacks, considered to be hiding in the vast networks of tunnels underneath Gaza.
If he is killed, Sinwar would give Israel a major victory, allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to argue his military operation has been a success in taking out the top leaders of Hamas and those who planned the Oct. 7 attacks.
Sinwar has also been an obstacle to a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, according to the U.S., and has played the chief role in accepting or rejecting conditions. Netanyahu has also been accused of being an obstacle in the talks, which died out in August.
About 100 hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza. It’s not clear exactly how the death of Sinwar would complicate securing their release, along with a cease-fire in Gaza, which faces a dire humanitarian situation in a territory where more than 42,000 people have been killed in the war since the Oct. 7 attacks.
Israel has taken out multiple leaders of Hamas, including the former top political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a late July strike.
After the death of Haniyeh, Sinwar was named the new top leader of Hamas, a group that has lost much of its power since the war began, with Israel taking out nearly all of its battalions in the fighting in Gaza.
Mohammed Deif, who was the top military commander of Hamas’s military wing, was also killed in July, Israel confirmed in August.
Israel has also decimated the command structure of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, including killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, last month.
Updated at 11:22 a.m. EDT