ISLAMABAD (PEN) : Hamas top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in combat, Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy Gaza Hamas chief and the group’s chief negotiator, confirmed on Friday.
The development comes after the Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz claimed on Thursday that Sinwar had been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Sinwar’s death, which follows Israeli assassinations of other Hamas leaders and commanders, will deal a huge blow to Hamas that has faced relentless air strikes since it attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Sinwar was named the group’s paramount leader on August 6, as a successor to former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.
Widely known as the architect of the October 7, 2023 attack, the most devastating event for Israel in decades, Sinwar had been in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since the start of Gaza crisis.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar, 62, was elected as Hamas’ leader in Gaza in 2017.
He spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons and was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive following the assassination of Haniyeh.