Video shows Yahya Sinwar's despair as he was killed

The military said on Thursday that intelligence agencies had been searching for Sinwar for months and gradually narrowed the area where he could have operated after dental records, fingerprints and DNA testing confirmed Sinwar's death.

Hamas has not yet commented, but sources within the group say the signs they see suggest Sinwar was indeed killed by Israeli forces.

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Video of Israeli military operations during the killing of Hamas leader (source: Israeli Army/TST)

"Dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and ISA over the past year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was killed, restricted Yahya Sinwar's movements as he was pursued by forces and led to his death," the Israeli military said in a statement.

But unlike other militant leaders hunted down and killed by Israel, including Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 13, the operation to kill Sinwar was not a targeted, pre-planned attack.

Instead, officials said the Hamas leader was found by soldiers searching an area in Tal El Sultan, south of Gaza, on Wednesday where they believed senior Hamas members were hiding.

The moment Yahya Sinwar was killed. Photo: Israeli Army

The army saw three suspected militants moving between buildings and opened fire, leading to a gunfight in which Sinwar escaped into a ruined building. According to Israeli media reports, tank shells and rockets were also fired at the building.

On Thursday, the Israeli military released video from a mini-drone showing Sinwar, with a serious injury to his hand, sitting in a chair with his face covered by a scarf. The video shows him trying to throw a stick at the drone in a desperate attempt to bring it down.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Sinwar was only identified as a militant, but troops stormed in and found him with a weapon, a bulletproof vest and 40,000 shekels (about $10,000). "He tried to escape and our forces killed him," he told reporters in a televised news conference.

Photo of Yahya Sinwar when he was alive. Photo: Reuters

In the final months of his life, Sinwar, the main architect of the October 7, 2023, Israeli attack that sparked the Gaza war, appeared to have stopped using his phone and other communication devices.

Israeli officials say they believe he is hiding in one of the vast tunnel networks Hamas has dug beneath Gaza over the past two decades, but as the Israeli military discovers more and more tunnels, even those are no guarantee the leader will escape capture.

Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said Israel's hunt for Sinwar over the past year had forced the Hamas leader to "act like a fugitive, forcing him to change locations several times".

Israeli officials had feared that Sinwar had taken some of the 101 Israeli and foreign hostages still being held in Gaza with him as a human shield to protect himself from Israeli attacks. But no hostages were found nearby when he was killed on Wednesday.

Hoang Anh (according to Reuters, AJ, CNN)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/thu-linh-yahya-sinwar-cua-hamas-bat-ngo-bi-israel-tieu-diet-video-cho-thay-su-tuyet-vong-khi-bi-bao-vay-post317356.html