Yahya Sinwar, the military head and de facto leader of Hamas, was killed during an Israeli raid in southern Gaza Wednesday, officials confirmed yesterday. Sinwar had long been considered Israel's top target and is believed to have been the architect of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, which killed almost 1,200 people and kick-started the current Israel-Hamas war.
Sinwar, designated a terrorist by the US, has a winding personal biography. Born in a Gazan refugee camp in 1962, he spent more than two decades in an Israeli prison starting in 1988—during which time an Israeli doctor removed a tumor from his brain. Released in 2011 in a prisoner exchange, Sinwar quickly became a senior figure in Hamas, planning a number of attacks in the intervening decade.
US officials said Sinwar's death offered a chance for a cease-fire in Gaza. An estimated 97 Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7 remain unaccounted for, while the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 42,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
See updates and maps of the conflict here.
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