- Unconfirmed reports suggest Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar may be dead
- Israeli media reported that he was killed in an IDF airstrike.
- Local media also reported that Israeli intelligence is divided over whether he is dead.
Unconfirmed reports claim that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The claims, first reported by Israeli broadcaster Kan, suggest the terror group’s leader was killed in an IDF airstrike in Gaza, although details about exactly where and when he may have been killed are scarce.
Israeli journalist Ben Caspit quoted sources as saying: “There were also times in the past when he disappeared and we thought he was dead, but then he reappeared.”
Israeli media have reported that the intelligence community is divided over whether he is really dead.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid was quick to refute the claims, writing in X that “Israel has no intelligence information indicating that Haya Sinwar is dead.”
He quoted a senior official as saying: “These are hopes and conjectures based solely on the fact that Sinwar has been incommunicado for several weeks.”
Unconfirmed reports claim Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (pictured) was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi (center) attends a meeting at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, as an Israeli military operation takes place in Beirut, Lebanon, September 20, 2024.
Smoke rises at the site of an Israeli airstrike outside the village of Zawtar, southern Lebanon, September 21, 2024.
The Jerusalem Post also reported that no source made reference to any specific assassination operation carried out by the IDF to kill the Hamas leader, adding that “one senior source poured cold water on that idea.”
The newspaper said the IDF said it could neither confirm nor deny the reports, while the Walla news site noted that the Shin Bet intelligence agency rejected the report and believes Sinwar is alive.
Local media reported that the claims were based on the idea that Sinwar had been out of touch with Hamas representatives present at the ceasefire negotiations for longer than usual.
This is not the first time Sinwar is believed to have been killed during Israel’s war in Gaza.
In December, Sinwar was reported to have been killed, wounded or fled to the Sinai in Egypt.
It was later learned that he had lost contact with his subordinates as part of his cover-up tactics.
This week, a letter written on behalf of Sinwar was sent to the Houthis in Yemen, in which he praised the terrorist group for attacking Israel.
“The resistance is in good shape. We will break the political will of the enemy in the same way we broke their military will,” Sinwar wrote.
He is reported to have added: “We have prepared for a long war of attrition that will break the political will of the enemy, just as the Bul al-Aqsa attack (October 7 attack) broke their military will.”
This comes after the US admitted that little progress is being made in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
National security spokesman John Kirby admitted that diplomatic teams had made “no progress in the last two weeks. Not for lack of trying.”
According to him, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar does not appear to be “negotiating in good faith,” citing the recent killing of six Israeli hostages in tunnels under Gaza. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not trying.”