How Israel Tracked Down and Killed Hamas Chief Sinwar, Its No. 1 Enemy

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was tracked by an Israeli mini drone as he lay dying in the ruins of a building in southern Gaza and filmed him slumped in a dust-covered chair, according to a video released by Israeli authorities on Thursday. .

As the drone hovered nearby, the video showed him throwing a stick at it in an apparent act of desperation.

After an intense manhunt that lasted more than a year, the Israeli troops who killed Sinwar were initially unaware that they had captured their country’s number one enemy after a shootout on Wednesday, Israeli officials said.

Intelligence services had been gradually restricting the area where he could operate, the military said on Thursday, after dental records, fingerprints and DNA tests provided final confirmation of Sinwar’s death.

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How Israel killed Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief believed to be the mastermind of October 7th

But unlike other militant leaders tracked and killed by Israel, including Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 13, the operation that finally killed Sinwar was not a planned, targeted attack. or an operation carried out by elite commandos.