The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it is investigating whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has died in an attack in the Gaza Strip, the exact location of which was not disclosed, in which they say they killed at least three militants. The statement indicates that the operation is part of a broader effort to cripple Hamas and its military capabilities in Gaza, though details remain contested and unconfirmed as the investigation proceeds.
The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service are assessing the possibility that one of the killed individuals was Yahya Sinwar. So far, officials say they cannot definitively confirm the identity of the three dead, according to the military briefing.
The announcement comes shortly after the army said it had bombed a school in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, allegedly used as a command and control hub for Islamic Jihad and Hamas, in an attack that Hamas’s government media office says left at least 28 people dead and about 150 wounded.
The Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, also assumed the reins of the group’s political bureau on August 6 after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in an attack attributed to Israel.
Sinwar, who spent 22 years in an Israeli prison before his release in 2011 in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Gaza in return for the soldier Gilad Shalit, has been described by those who questioned him as an extremely intelligent individual.
Since the start of the Gaza war more than a year ago, his whereabouts have been largely unknown to Israel, which had suggested the Hamas leader could be in tunnels near some of the roughly one hundred hostages still in the enclave as a form of protection.
Born in Khan Younis, a stronghold of Palestinian support for the Muslim Brotherhood, Sinwar was first arrested by Israel in 1982 at age 19 for Islamic activities, during which time he earned the trust of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Two years after Hamas was founded in 1987, Sinwar created the group’s feared internal security division, Al Majd, the guardian of Islamic morality and a force against anyone suspected of collaborating with Israel.