Israel has released drone footage that captured Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s final moments in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces published a video on Thursday that shows the drone’s view as it flys through a window of a bombed-out building in Rafah.
Inside, a man with his face covered is seen sitting in an armchair surrounded by debris. The man and the chair are covered in a thick layer of dust. As the drone approaches, he throws a long stick in its direction out of apparent defiance or desperation. He appears to be injured. The video then cuts off.
A tank later fired a shell at the building. At the time, the Israeli soldiers didn’t realize they had just killed the leader of Hamas.
The following morning, soldiers returned to the scene and identified a dead body as resembling Sinwar. Photos apparently taken by Israeli troops on the scene showed the body of a man who appeared to be him, half-buried in rubble and with a gaping wound in his head. Due to concerns about booby traps, the soldiers cautiously took a sample for DNA testing in Israel.
Later, once the area was deemed safe, Sinwar’s body was transported to Israel for further identification. Israel confirmed Sinwar’s death on Thursday.
Sinwar was the mastermind behind the October 7 massacre, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds hostage. He had been in hiding since the war in Gaza broke out. He was believed to be moving through a complex network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip.
Referred to by Israel as “the dead man walking,” Sinwar had not appeared in public or released any messages for his followers, effectively becoming a ghost.
The New York Times reported that the hunt for Sinwar led Israel to establish a special unit within Shin Bet, the country’s domestic intelligence agency. The U.S. is said to have provided ground-penetrating radar to help track his communications. Unable to use electronic devices, Sinwar was allegedly communicating with other Hamas leaders and military commanders through human messengers, a tactic used by other terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.
It was also reported that Sinwar was using Israeli hostages as human shields and was heavily guarded. There were no hostages present when Sinwar was killed, but his DNA was found in a tunnel near the location where six hostages were found dead in August.
According to The New York Times, on Wednesday, a trainee squad from the IDF was patrolling Tal al-Sultan in southern Gaza’s Rafah city, near the Egyptian border. Supported by drones, the unit engaged with a group of terrorists, killing three of them.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the troops did not know Sinwar was among the terrorists in Rafah. During the mission, troops spotted three men running from house to house and engaged them before they separated.
The man later identified as Sinwar “ran alone into one of the buildings,” where he was located by the drone.
A gun, a flak jacket and 40,000 shekels (about $14,853) were found with his dead body.
“Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run — he didn’t die as a commander, but as someone who only cared for himself. This is a clear message to all of our enemies,” said Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister.
Hamas confirmed Sinwar’s death on Friday and said the remaining Israeli hostages would not be released until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel withdraws its troops.
“Those prisoners will not return to you before the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza,” said Khalil al-Hayya, who was Sinwar’s Qatar-based deputy and headed up the group’s delegation during several rounds of ceasefire negotiations mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt.
National Post, with additional reporting from The Associated Press