Hamas boss: Yahya Sinwar died covered in dust and covered up

What is probably the last photo of the living Yahya Sinwar seems bizarre: a man sits on a red upholstered chair covered in gray dust and looks over his shoulder towards the camera. He has his face covered and his clothes are stone gray. The flying eye belongs to a drone that is circling through an apartment that has obviously been shot at. There are debris on the floor, pillows, remains of fans – all also covered in a thick layer of dust. After a few seconds, the person in the chair throws a stick towards the drone.

Sinwar’s last images were from a drone

Sinwar sits in the armchair as if he had just read a book or watched television at the exact moment an explosion is said to have ripped through parts of the apartment in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. But according to the Israeli military, the mastermind behind the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 had only moments before fled from an Israeli unit into the remains of a living room – where a drone took the last images of him.

It was apparently an Israeli routine patrol that tracked down the terrorist leader – and ultimately cost him his life. According to the New York Times, among others, the group came across three suspects. There was then a firefight. The fleeing suspected terrorists separated and barricaded themselves in neighboring houses. Parts of the buildings were destroyed with the help of drones, Israeli officials said. According to The Times of Israel newspaper, it was a tank that fired into the building.

Israelis found Hamas chief by accident

Only when the dust had settled and cleared did the soldiers search the building and came across a body that looked strikingly similar to Yahya Sinwar, the drone video shows. Apparently the patrol unit wasn’t explicitly looking for the man – at least not here and at this moment. Intelligence reports spoke only generally of senior Hamas members hiding in the area. Dental samples and fingerprints later proved that the body was actually Sinwar’s remains.

The 61-year-old was Israel’s most wanted terrorist and belonged to the founding generation of Hamas. Because of his cruelty, even against his own people, he was known as the “Butcher of Khan Yunis”. As Hamas boss in the Gaza Strip, he massively armed the Islamist organization with Iranian help and prepared it for the terrorist attack in October 2023. At that time, 1,200 people were killed and 250 were abducted to the coastal strip. This brutal attack, the largest attack on Jews since World War II, sparked war in the Middle East.

The New York Times confirms Israel’s account

It has not yet been independently verified whether the recordings now published actually show the Hamas leader, whether they were actually taken shortly before his death and whether they are actually current and from the north of Rafah. Because all information about this comes from the Israeli side. Hamas itself has at least confirmed Sinwar’s death.

Research by the New York Times suggests that the depiction is correct. Both the person in the video and in pictures after the killing are wearing a very similar green kaffiyeh. In addition, other published videos by Israeli soldiers show the same area in Rafah, and a recording from September even shows the same house where Sinwar died.

Does the war end after the decapitation strike?

In the past three months, three of the leading terror leaders in the Middle East have been eliminated: Ismail Haniya, Hamas, July 31. Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah, September 27. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas, October 16. Israel is behind each of their deaths, but anyone who believed that the war would also subside with their deaths will have to be disappointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Today evil has suffered a heavy blow, the mission before us is not yet finished ” he said after the latest beheading strike.

And so the fighting continued after the confirmed killing in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, or in northern Israel. According to the Israeli military, the Hamas-allied Shiite militia Hezbollah fired at least 15 rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

Sources: “”, DPA, AFP, , “”