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HAMAS leader Yahya Sinwar has been confirmed dead after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Dubbed "Gaza's Bin Laden", Sinwar has been Israel's main target ever since he masterminded the horrific October 7 massacre.
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Israeli officials on Thursday said there was a "high likelihood" that a terrorist shot dead in Gaza on Wednesday was Sinwar.
His death was later confirmed by foreign minister Israel Katz who said: "Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers."
Katz dubbed Sinwar's death a "great military and moral achievement for Israel".
He also said it could mean fresh hope for hostages still being kept in Gaza and a possible "new reality" in the ravaged Strip.
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The army later released footage of Sinwar's final moments, hunched over and wounded inside a bombed building in Gaza.
"The elimination of Sinwar creates an opportunity for the immediate release of the hostages and a potential change that could lead to a new reality in Gaza - without Hamas and without Iranian control," Katz said.
Speaking about Sinwar's death, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said "evil has been delivered a blow but our task is not complete".
Netanyahu and top army officials have repeatedly vowed to take out Sinwar since October 7 last year.
The Hamas terror attack on Israeli soil killed over 1,000 people and saw some 250 more kidnapped into Gaza.
It sparked a horrific war in which more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes - according to the UN and other international human rights groups.
Israel recently launched a ground operation in Lebanon too, where Hamas ally Hezbollah is based, with Lebanese officials reporting the number of people killed as more than 2,300.
Speaking about his death this evening US President Joe Biden branded today a "good day for Israel, for the United States and for the world".
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops engaged in a gunfight with terrorists hunkered down inside a building in southern Gaza - and then called in a strike.
The building collapsed - and as troops picked through the rubble, they stumbled across a corpse that "looked very much like" Sinwar.
Gruesome photos widely shared online appeared to show Sinwar's dead body underneath rubble in Rafah.
He had a catastrophic head wound and appears to have lost a leg.
The body in the alleged images also looked to have the same mole next to Sinwar's left eye as well as similar earlobes and teeth.
The troops involved in the battle did not initially realise the target might by Sinwar until they saw the corpse.
An IDF statement earlier today announced their potential mammoth scalp.
They said: "During an activity by IDF fighters in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were killed.
Unseen footage shows Hamas' Oct 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwa hiding in terror tunnel with family
"The IDF and Shin Bet are investigating the possibility that one of the terrorists is Yahya Sinwar.
"At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed."
Israeli officials have taken the body to a laboratory so DNA testing can be done to confirm the corpse's identity, reports the New York Times.
Sinwar has been the head of Hamas in Gaza since 2017 but was recently bumped up to chief after the suspected Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.
Sinwar's ascendancy up the ranks was said to have only angered the IDF and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu further.
Israel’s military chiefs have repeatedly vowed that their offensive must not end until he is dead.
The terror boss is believed to have been in hiding in tunnels under the city to evade the IDF, transport weapons and even hold hostages.
Last month, the US military even ramped up the hunt for the Hamas boss.
They shipped in radar to help troops in Gaza trace the kingpin’s tunnel lair.
Last man standing Sinwar spent half of his adult life in Israeli prisons for terrorism, murder and kidnap plots.
Wanted posters shared online, not by the IDF, previously appeared to offer a £25,000 reward to Palestinians who turned him in.
Bombshell documents previously revealed the chilling confessions of the warlord who, in his own words, described how he became a serial killer in Palestine as he rose through the terrorist ranks.
The secret documents from the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence service give detailed accounts of his killings - even reportedly showing where he had dumped and buried his victims’ bodies.
Encouraged by his proud mentor, he freely admitted his role with Majd - Hamas' "security service" - as he took interrogators through each gruesome killing.
It comes as Sinwar's loyal right hand man Rawhi Mushtaha was wiped out in a bunker blitz assassination in Gaza, according to Israel.
The IDF said Mushtaha was one of the most senior members of Hamas but was taken out after a series of airstrikes back in July.
He was designated as a global terrorist by the US in 2015.
Sinwar's calculated massacre of innocent civilians on October 7 sparked an all out conflict in the Middle East.
Inside the twisted life of Yahya Sinwar
By Nick Parker, Foreign Editor
HIS life was saved twice by Israel – but the monster dubbed “The Hamas Bin Laden” repaid his sworn enemy by masterminding the October 7 horror.
Yahya Sinwar, 61, spent 22 years in an Israeli prison for terrorist murder and kidnap plots and spent every second honing his burning hatred for his captors.
His astonishing rise to the top of the Hamas terror tree came despite being sentenced to four life sentences in 1989 for planning the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians he suspected of working with Israel.
The bearded beast’s life was first saved when he was cured of cancer by an operation in a prison.
Then in 2011 he was freed, among 1,026 others, in a prisoner exchange for a single Israeli soldier in a deal that has been damned by his thousands of victims ever since.
Sinwar taught himself Hebrew and became fluent during his multiple stints as a caged man.
He began reading and studying every Israeli newspaper to probe the weak spots in his enemy’s armour.
The terror master’s deep knowledge of what makes Israelis tick led him to realise the power of the hostage-taking tactic now traumatising the strife-torn Jewish nation.
Yet despite his blood lust and bravado, the Hamas commander “cried like a baby” when he learned he had cancer, his jailer Lieutenant Betty Lahat has revealed.
Over a year on from the fateful day Israel is still at war with Hamas in Gaza.
The attack sparked a widespread military operation by the Israeli military which has since killed over 40,000, Hamas' health ministry claims.
Iran - known as Hamas' main backer in the region - was soon drawn in to the fighting.
Alongside its notorious proxy groups, such as Hezbollah and the Houthis, Iran has been waging attacks back on Israel.
Fighting has rapidly stepped up across Lebanon in particular in recent months after Hezbollah vowed to fight to the death in support for Hamas.
This caused the IDF to storm across the border into Lebanon and systematically eliminate the terror group.
Hezbollah has suffered constant blows to its leadership with Israel targeting its top brass one by one.
The biggest scalp saw leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in a series of massive aircraft strikes as he hid away in a secret Beirut bunker.
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