Israel claimed on Thursday that its forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza operation, dealing a massive blow to the group it has been fighting since October 7, 2023.

“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said in a post on X.

The military said that “after a year-long pursuit”, soldiers “eliminated Yahya Sinwar … in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip” on Wednesday. Hamas has not confirmed his death.

“The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7th, was eliminated today by IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement sent to media.

Israel earlier said it was checking whether it had successfully “eliminated” Sinwar in a Gaza operation, in what constitutes a massive blow against the group it has been fighting since last year’s October 7 attack.

Israel accused Sinwar of masterminding the attack and was hunting him down since the start of the Gaza conflict. Israel’s raging military offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, including women and children.

Sinwar became the group’s new leader after the killing of its former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in July.

Hamas and Iran blame Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, but Israel has not commented on it.

Israel’s announcement on Sinwar comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike in Lebanon, where its military has been waging an offensive since late September. A slew of other Iran-backed commanders have also been killed in recent months.

With Hamas hugely weakened more than a year into the Gaza conflict, Sinwar’s death deals a major blow to the organisation.

In a brief statement, the military earlier said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated”.

Israeli defence agencies “are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed”, the statement added.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel would hunt down “every terrorist” after the military made its announcement. “We will reach every terrorist and eliminate them,” Gallant wrote on social media platform X.

US President Joe Biden was briefed aboard Air Force One while heading to Germany and was being kept informed of developments, a US official said.

Hamas weakened, not crushed

Israel has been fighting Hamas since the October 7 attack — which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry.

Following the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and bring home all 251 hostages seized by fighters in their cross-border assault.

Israel has since expanded the scope of its operations to Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah opened a front against Israel by launching low-intensity cross-border strikes that forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.

Netanyahu has vowed to battle Hezbollah until victory and Israel on Thursday launched strikes on the south Lebanese city of Tyre, where the group and its allies hold sway. Israel also issued evacuation warnings for civilians in part of the eastern Lebanese Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

It had earlier struck a Hezbollah target in Syria, according to a war monitor, while Israel’s main ally the United States used heavy bombers to hit rebel targets in Yemen.

Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the “axis of resistance” of groups aligned with Iran, which on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel.

Israel has vowed to retaliate for Iran’s strike, sparking concern around the world that what is already a conflict on multiple fronts could morph into an all-out regional conflagration.

Iran warning

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami on Thursday warned Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Israeli raid on the Syrian city of Latakia targeted a “weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah”.

The Israeli military did not comment on the strike when contacted by AFP.

Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, including multiple recent attacks along the Lebanese border that sought to cut off Hezbollah’s main weapons and equipment supply route from Iran to Lebanon.

In Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the United States conducted multiple B-2 bomber strikes on weapon storage facilities, according to the US military and Defence Department.

The Houthis’ political bureau said “the American aggression will not pass without a response”, and vowed to continue the group’s “support and assistance to Gaza and Lebanon”.

‘Total destruction’

The fighting in Lebanon has left at least 1,373 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have been clashing near Lebanon’s southern border, where Hezbollah on Thursday said it hit four Israeli tanks with guided missiles.

Rescue workers affiliated with Amal in the southern city of Qana were digging through the rubble of several buildings destroyed in a bombing this week. “More than 15 buildings have been completely destroyed, total destruction in a neighbourhood in Qana,” said Mohammed Nasrallah Ibrahim, one of the rescuers.

Israel has faced criticism over its strikes in Lebanon, including from its top arms supplier, the US. The United Nations has also warned about a growing number of attacks on Lebanese healthcare facilities.

A new ambulance was destroyed by an Israeli strike in a southern village last week, volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal told AFP. “We weren’t expecting the ambulances … to get directly targeted or bombed,” he said.

The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, without providing evidence.

Hunger in Gaza

In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, where almost the entire population is displaced, two hospitals said Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 14 people. The military alleged that it had hit militants.

Some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said on Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine.

Nearly 100 per cent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, with a “staggering” unemployment rate of nearly 80pc, the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Thursday. The impact of the fighting on Gaza “will be felt for generations to come”, said the ILO’s Ruba Jaradat.