Gaza man says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in his evacuated home

A Palestinian displaced from Gaza told the BBC that the house where the former Hamas leader was killed was his home for 15 years before he had to flee in May.

Ashraf Abo Taha said he was “shocked” to identify the partially destroyed building in Israeli drone footage of the incident as his home on Ibn Sena Street in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Yahya Sinwar, the key figure behind the October 7 attacks on Israel, was killed by Israeli troops on Wednesday.

The Israeli military released drone footage that it said showed Sinwar in a partially destroyed house before he was killed.

Abo Taha told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline that he had left his home in Rafah and gone to Khan Younis on May 6, when Israel ordered evacuations and began an operation against Hamas fighters and has not received any news from his home until now.

Abo Taha said his daughter first showed him the footage that allegedly captured Sinwar’s last moments on social media, saying it depicted their home in Rafah. He initially didn’t believe her, he said, until his brother confirmed the house was indeed his.

“I thought ‘yes, this is my house’ and I saw the photos and I was shocked,” said Abo Taha.

He said he had no idea why Sinwar was there or how he got there.

“I and my brothers and children never had anything to do with it,” he said.

The BBC has verified that photos and videos provided by Mr Abo Taha of his home match images of the house where Sinwar was killed.

BBC Verify compared and matched images of the house’s window arches, exterior door decorations, shelves and armchairs from the footage.

The BBC cannot independently verify whether Abo Taha owned the house.

Footage of Sinwar’s murder was analyzed by the BBC, and the house where he was last seen was one of the few partially destroyed buildings in a neighborhood with extensive damage.

The Israeli attack on Rafah in May was met with strong international criticism and triggered the exodus of more than a million Palestinians, according to the UN.

Many were forced to move for a second or third time as they were sheltering in and around Rafah after being displaced from other parts of Gaza.

Abo Taha said he built his house in Rafah himself with the help of his brothers. It cost around 200,000 shekels (£41,400) and was in good condition when he left, he said.

He described his home’s orange couches and an orange casserole dish, remembering the last time he saw them while running away from home.

“They are souvenirs because some of them were brought by my mother and they are very precious to me,” he said.

“What happened saddened me a lot, the house I built and all my payments are gone,” he said. “Only God can compensate us.”