Israeli troops had for more than a year hunted the leader of Hamas, who disappeared in Gaza soon after masterminding the 7 October attacks.
Yahya Sinwar, 61, was said to have spent much of his time hiding in the tunnels under the Strip, along with a cadre of bodyguards and a “human shield” of hostages seized from Israel.
But ultimately, it appears he met his end in a chance encounter with an Israeli patrol in southern Gaza. His guard detail was small. No hostages were found.
The Israel Defense Forces says a unit from its 828th Bislamach Brigade was patrolling Tal al-Sultan, an area of Rafah, on Wednesday.
Three fighters were identified and engaged by the Israeli troops – and all were eliminated.
At that stage nothing seemed particularly remarkable about the firefight and the soldiers did not return to the scene until Thursday morning.
It was then, as the dead were inspected, that one of the bodies was found to bear a striking resemblance to the leader of Hamas.
The corpse however remained at the site due to suspected booby traps and instead, part of a finger was removed and sent to Israel for testing.
His body was finally extracted and brought to Israel later that day as the area was made safe.
Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s spokesman, said his forces “didn’t know he was there but we continued to operate”.
He said his troops had identified the three men running from house to house, and engaged them before they split up.
The man since identified as Sinwar “ran alone into one of the buildings”. After being located by a drone, he was killed when a tank launched a shell at the building.
Read more at BBC.com
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