The Israeli navy has launched drone footage it says reveals Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s remaining moments: alone in a ruined Gaza residence with the partitions blown out from shelling, sat hunched in a chair lined by mud, together with his head and face obscured by a shawl.
Together with his proper arm showing severely wounded, the video reveals Sinwar flinging a stick over his head within the path of the approaching drone. The Guardian has not independently verified the footage.
When the footage was taken, Israeli navy spokesperson Daniel Hagari mentioned Sinwar was solely recognized as a fighter. The navy then fired a further shell on the constructing, inflicting it to break down and kill him, Hagari mentioned. He mentioned Sinwar was discovered with a bulletproof vest, grenades, and 40,000 shekels ($10,707).
Based on the Jerusalem Submit, Hagari instructed reporters: “Sinwar fled alone into one of many buildings. Our forces used a drone to scan the realm, which you’ll see right here within the footage I’m presenting.”
“Sinwar, who was injured in his hand by gunfire, could be seen right here together with his face lined, in his remaining moments, throwing a picket plank on the drone,” he mentioned.
“He tried to flee and our forces eradicated him.”.
Hamas has not commented on the killing of Sinwar.
Pictures circulating on-line confirmed the physique of a person resembling Sinwar with a gaping head wound, wearing a military-style vest, half buried within the rubble of a destroyed constructing.
Israeli officers mentioned Sinwar was discovered by infantry troopers looking out an space within the Tal El Sultan space of southern Gaza on Wednesday, the place they believed senior members of Hamas had been situated.
The troops noticed three suspected militants transferring between buildings and opened hearth, resulting in a gunfight throughout which Sinwar escaped right into a ruined constructing.
Within the final months of his life, Sinwar, the principle architect of the 7 October 2023 assault on Israel that set off the struggle in Gaza, seems to have stopped utilizing telephones and different communication gear that will have allowed Israel’s highly effective intelligence providers to trace him down.
Israeli officers mentioned they believed he was hiding in one of many huge community of tunnels that Hamas dug beneath Gaza over the previous twenty years, however as increasingly have been uncovered by Israeli troops, even the tunnels had been no assure of escaping seize.
Intelligence providers had been looking for Sinwar for months and had been step by step limiting the realm the place he may function, the navy mentioned. Dental information, fingerprints and DNA testing supplied remaining affirmation of Sinwar’s demise.
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