Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed in Gaza, Israel says

Hamas has confirmed the death of Yahya Sinwar.

The confirmation of his death came in a video statement by senior official Khalil Al Hayya.

Earlier, a senior Hamas official had acknowledged Sinwar’s death without naming him.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, center, speaks with Netherland's Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans, third right, and Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson, fourth right, during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Belgium, on October 18.

Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has created an “extraordinary opportunity” to achieve a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The killing of Sinwar is “a major achievement, and it opens a major opportunity for progress,” Austin said Friday at a NATO press briefing in Brussels.

He added that the US’ priority was releasing the hostages still in Gaza.

Israeli officials have accused Antonio Guterres of failing to “welcome” the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, continuing their months-long spat with the United Nations chief for his alleged bias against their country.

After the Israeli military said it had killed Sinwar, Guterres said on X that attacks on UN peacekeepers are “completely unacceptable,” amid continued Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. He did not mention Sinwar.

Guterres has condemned the Hamas attacks as “acts of terror.”

Katz accused Guterres of “leading an extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agenda” and said that Israel will “continue to designate him as persona non grata.”

Guterres has been banned from entering Israel since October 2, after Israel accused him of failing to condemn Iran’s October 1 attack.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan also criticized Guterres following his failure to welcome Sinwar’s death.

In his only post on X since Sinwar’s death, Guterres warned Israel that attacks against peacekeepers are “may constitute a war crime.”

Under international humanitarian law, peacekeepers are considered civilians because they are not part of the conflict. This month, the UN said the Israel fired on its peacekeepers and forcibly entered its base.

Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, on June 3.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has instructed Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib to summon the chargé d’affaires at the Iranian embassy in Beirut to clarify comments made by Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Mikati’s office said on X on Friday.

Ghalibaf, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro on Thursday, stated that Tehran is willing to negotiate with France on a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, including the implementation of a UN resolution that ended the 2006 Lebanon-Hezbollah war and led to the militant group withdrawing from parts of southern Lebanon.

Mikati also directed the foreign minister to relay Lebanon’s stance on the issue to the Iranian envoy.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security meeting on Friday where they discussed the “significant window of opportunity” the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar presented for the return of hostages and the “elimination” of Hamas, the Israeli president’s office said in a statement.

The Israeli military has issued an evacuation notice to residents of 23 villages in southern Lebanon, urging them to move north. Some of the villages mentioned in the notice on Friday had been named in previous warnings.

Residents of these villages, located within 18 miles (30 kilometers) of the Israeli border, have been advised to relocate about 31 miles (50 kilometers) north.

On Tuesday, the Middle East director of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that around a fifth of Lebanon’s population has fled their homes, and about a quarter of the country is under Israeli military evacuation orders.

The director of one of the few functioning hospitals in northern Gaza has said it is overwhelmed by the amount of incoming patients, with staff fatigued and running out of medical supplies and food.

Abu Safiya said the number of people being treated after an Israeli airstrike on a school serving as a shelter for displaced people in the Jabalya refugee camp, which health officials said killed nearly 30 people, had put additional strain on its intensive care unit over the past day.

“From yesterday until this moment, no one has slept. There are large numbers that arrived due to the massacre,” Abu Safiya said.

In addition, the hospital is grappling with the number of babies born prematurely due to the stress and “psychological pressure” on pregnant women caused by heavy bombing in northern Gaza.

He called for “really rapid intervention” from international institutions to help create safe passage for medical aid and food.

Deepening crisis: The World Health Organization said Israel is blocking multiple medical organizations from entering Gaza, the first time entire health agencies have been denied access to the enclave during the more than year-long war.

A UN inquiry has accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza during its war with Hamas in attacks it said amount to war crimes.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, speaks during an interview in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 16.

A senior Hamas official, Basem Naim, acknowledged the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Friday but insisted the group would emerge “eventually victorious.”

The statement, which did not name Sinwar, said it was “painful and distressing to lose beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders like ours.”

Naim had earlier issued a near-identical statement naming Sinwar, but withdrew it shortly afterwards. In the second statement, Sinwar’s name had been removed.

Naim said that Hamas became “stronger and more popular” with each assassination of previous leaders.

This post has been updated with Hamas’ revised statement.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati gives an interview at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 15.

In a rare public rebuke to Iran, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called statements by the Iranian parliament’s speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf a “blatant interference” in Lebanon’s affairs.

Ghalibaf told French newspaper Le Figaro on Thursday that Tehran is ready to negotiate with France on a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, including the implementation of a UN resolution that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 and saw the militant group withdrawing from parts of southern Lebanon.

Mikati said Lebanon is “surprised” by Iran’s position, which “constitutes a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to impose an unacceptable guardianship over Lebanon.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi led a delegation to Beirut earlier this month that included Ghalibaf. The delegation met Mikati during the visit, which came a week after Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Some background: Hezbollah, which dominates southern Lebanon and is currently fighting a war with Israel, is backed by Iran. Implementing the UN Resolution 1701 without the group’s consent would be almost impossible.

The 2006 resolution called for a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon. The resolution also stipulated that Hezbollah must withdraw north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon, and that only the Lebanese military should hold positions in the area between the Litani and Israel.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of blocking multiple medical organizations from entering Gaza, marking the first time entire health agencies have been denied access to the enclave during the more than year-long war.

The United Nations health agency said it was notified by eight organizations of the EMT Coordination Cell, which coordinates international emergency medical teams, that more than 50 specialist personnel were affected by blockages.

CNN has reached out to COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates the inspection and delivery of humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

The specialists were supposed to support medical treatments including surgeries, hemodialysis and mental health support for health workers, at facilities such as the Nasser Medical Complex and the European Hospital in southern Gaza and Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, WHO said.

Destruction and debris in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on May 2.

WHO expressed concern “about the impact of these denials on Gaza’s strained healthcare system.” It said there had been a one third reduction in trauma care and a more than 25% decline in surgeries supported by EMTs in Gaza over the past week, “placing additional pressure on already overburdened hospital staff.”

Last week, a UN inquiry accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza during its war with Hamasin attacks it said amount to war crimes.

CNN reported earlier this month that at least seven medical nongovernmental organizations had been banned from entering the Palestinian enclave, according to two sources. The ban came just days after the United States warned Israel it needs to do more to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing military assistance.

There is no chain of command in Hamas following the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar, which may lead to dangerous outcomes for captives in the besieged territory, a former hostage negotiator told CNN.

“There is no clear line of the chain of command today in Gaza, and discipline could easily break down.”

With Hamas’ top leader is dead, negotiators will have to focus on striking a deal with the group’s exiled leadership mainly based in Doha, Qatar, said Baskin, who has experience negotiating with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a small group of ministers and senior members of the defense establishment are due to hold a “consultation” at noon local time on Friday, an Israeli official told CNN.

Iran and Lebanon were expected to be discussed at the meeting, which had originally been scheduled for Tuesday evening but was delayed. Now, after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the war in Gaza and the release of the hostages being held by Hamas will also be discussed, the official said.

Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement hosts a meeting in Gaza on April 13, 2022.

More than a year after Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, the country’s military killed the man it considers the chief architect of that cross-border massacre — raising questions about the future of the war and of the militant group itself.

Israel has killed several other top Hamas commanders including Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political leader.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death marked “the beginning of the day after Hamas,” but “the task before us is not yet complete.”

So, how did it happen? Israel had poured their resources into a fierce manhunt for Sinwar, declaring him as the most-wanted man in Gaza and a “dead man walking.” At one point, an Israeli military spokesperson said their hunt “will not stop until he is captured, dead or alive.”

And, US officials believe, the Israeli military got close a few times, at one point even obtaining a video that purportedly showed Sinwar with family members inside a Gaza tunnel — but he continued slipping away. The Israeli military previously surrounded Sinwar’s house and carried out an intensive assault on his hometown of Khan Younis but could not find him.

That year-long search came to an unexpected end in Rafah, when Israeli forces came under fire near a building during a routine operation, according to two Israeli sources.

The troops returned fire with a tank, then flew a drone into the building. A video shared by the military shows what seem to be Sinwar’s final moments: he sits alone in a chair, surrounded by dust and rubble, appearing to look directly at the camera. He holds a piece of wood in his hand and throws it at the drone before the video ends.

It was only then, and when troops inspected the rubble, that they realized Sinwar was among the bodies.

Dental records and other biometrics helped Israel identify the Hamas leader, according to a US official and former official familiar with the matter.

Sinwar had been trying to escape to the north when he was killed, the Israeli military said. He was found with a gun and more than $10,000 in Israeli shekels, it said.

Israel will continue to “face the same core issues” around its occupation and siege of Palestinian territories even after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a Haaretz columnist told CNN.

“Killing Sinwar does not kill the problem, it does not even kill Hamas. It just [weakens] Hamas but we still face the same problems also in the morning after,” Gideon Levy of the Haaretz newspaper told CNN’s Kim Brunhuber.

Levy said the main obstacle to peace is “the occupation, the siege, the apartheid” in Palestinian territories, which he said are “real obstacles” that Israel is not ready to face.

Asked whether Sinwar’s death would inspire Hamas to seek revenge, Levy said Hamas is currently a “bleeding organization.”

The Israeli military said Friday it had killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon.

Muhammad Hassin Ramal, commander of the Tayba area, had directed “many terror attacks” against Israel and Israeli soldiers, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hezbollah has not commented.

The IDF also said it struck more than 150 targets in Gaza and Lebanon over the past day, including weapons storage facilities, underground shafts, sniper posts, observation posts and “terrorist operatives.”

Yahya Sinwar looks on as Hamas supporters take part in an anti-Israel rally over tension in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, in Gaza City, on October 1, 2022.

Yahya Sinwar will be seen as a hero by some Palestinians “because he died fighting for his people,” the president of the Palestinian National Initiative told CNN.

Speaking from Ramallah, in the West Bank, Mustafa Barghouti told CNN’s Paula Newton that Palestinian suffering still stems from Israel’s occupation, which dates back to 1948.

Barghouti said Israel repeatedly says Sinwar and his fighters hide behind civilians and use them as human shields, but he was killed in what he described as a fight “face to face with soldiers.”

Some background: Barghouti is a physician and an independent Palestinian politician. The Palestinian National Initiative describes itself as a democratic movement of non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation.

Asked if Sinwar’s death made a ceasefire more likely, Barghouti pointed to Netanyahu, who said his country’s war goals were “not yet complete.”

“The problem here is Netanyahu and his fascist government, which refuses to stop this terrible aggression in Gaza.”

Israel’s elite Givati Brigade joined its expanded operations in the area of Jabalya in northern Gaza overnight, the Israeli military said Friday, nearly two weeks after launching a new ground operation there, citing signs of Hamas rebuilding.

Nearly 30 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Jabalya refugee camp housing displaced people, local health officials said Thursday. The IDF said it carried out a strike on a Hamas and Islamic Jihad “command and control center” embedded in a compound that previously served as a school.

The IDF said Israeli troops also struck a military structure in central Gaza from which militants were operating.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Friday that, while most of the Israeli forces remaining in Gaza had been moved “to the important operation in Jabalya,” there were troops in the southern command “who insisted on continuing at the same time” in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah, where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces.

US President Joe Biden had envisioned a “day after” for Gaza without Hamas in power following Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

But it’s just as likely that his demise does nothing to alter the Middle East’s tragic reality: The elimination of terrorist masterminds rarely solves conflicts rooted deep in history in a region where each war simply sows the bitter seeds for the next one.

Sinwar’s elimination, however, caused a hurried relaunch of Washington’s so-far frustrated attempts to end the war in Gaza that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe and is casting a shadow over Vice President Kamala Harris’ election hopes.

Biden reacted to Sinwar’s death by declaring justice had been served and simultaneously cranked up pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to embrace the moment to end the fighting in Gaza. The president was quickly on the phone with his sometimes-estranged partner in Israel. And he issued the statement calling for “a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.”

Impediment to peace removed: In the US, Sinwar was seen as a major impediment to the Biden administration’s failed efforts to broker a ceasefire that would see the release of remaining hostages in Gaza and alleviate a disastrous humanitarian crisis. This is only half the story since, at times, US officials have suggested Netanyahu had interests in prolonging the war as well.

Read the full analysis here.

Yaakov Katz speaks with CNN in an interview on October 17.

Many Israelis are wondering whether the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar means the war has entered its final phase, a senior columnist at the Jerusalem Post told CNN.

Katz said Israelis are asking whether they can soon live a normal life, in which they are “not every day in bomb shelters” and are not attacked on several fronts each day, and where “people are not dying on both sides.”

“There is some optimism that maybe the death of Sinwar can finally lead to an end to this very long war,” Katz said.

A photo taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows trails of smoke left in the sky from rockets fired toward Israel on October 18.

Hezbollah said Friday it fired a barrage of rockets at the Galilee region of northern Israel.

Hezbollah said it launched the rockets toward the Zebulun settlement in the Galilee area “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” in defense of Lebanon and its people, and in response to Israeli attacks on the southern parts of the country.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said about 15 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

“Some of the projectiles were intercepted and a number of fallen projectiles were identified,” the IDF said.

It also said a drone was intercepted inside Israeli maritime territory along its coast overnight, with no injuries were reported.

The man dubbed by Israel a “dead man walking” is dead.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s killing in Gaza is a major win for Israel following a year-long manhunt for the man believed to be the mastermind of the deadliest terror attack in the country’s history.

And it could bring the devastating war in Gaza closer to an end, experts say, if Israel and its allies can seize the opportunity.

Harel Chorev, senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told CNN that Sinwar’s death could be a fatal blow for Hamas because of the way he ran the group.

Before the war, power in Hamas was decentralized — with Gaza political chief Sinwar just one of many leaders, Chorev said.

But that changed over the past year.

A year of pounding by Israel, which has left swathes of Gaza devastated and brought a huge toll for civilians, has left Hamas greatly weakened and Sinwar’s killing will create a major power vacuum, which Israel and its allies will no doubt aim to capitalize on.

Read the full analysis here.

The US and other world leaders are signaling a renewed push for a ceasefire deal and the release of remaining hostages in Gaza, following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar, believed by Israel to be the chief architect of the October 7 attack, was killed during an operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.

Hamas has yet to comment on its leader.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death marks the “beginning of the day after Hamas” but added its war goals were “not yet complete.”

Here’s what to know:

Several Palestinians in Gaza told CNN they do not believe the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will put an end to the war.

Gazan Abu Mohammad told CNN he felt Sinwar was a “symbol of the Palestinian people.” He told CNN he wanted Israel to stop the war, but had his doubts that it would. “You must end the war since the man has been killed,” he said.

“End the war for the people who are suffering immensely from daily killings and bombings, with dozens of casualties, and all of them are children, women, and the wounded. We are on the brink of winter, and people are in tents that are sheltered only by a cloud in the sky,” he added.

Abu Ahmad described Sinwar as “resisting for the liberation of his homeland.”

Mahmoud Jneid: “Al-Sinwar was a target. What about us, the displaced? The closure of crossings and the lack of food and drink for children make our situation worse than assassination. I wish Israel would assassinate me. My brothers and family have died, and I wish for my own death so that I can find peace.”

Samad: “Sinwar was a target for Israel, and he was targeted and killed,” the 36-year-old told CNN. “He attacked Israel and committed crimes that we have paid the price for. We paid with horrific tragedies, with the blood of our children, our money, and our homes,” he said, adding, “We hope that the war will stop and come to an end.”

Mumen Khalili: The 22-year-old said, “Sinwar has died, but so many of our people have been killed, and there is no excuse now for Netanyahu to continue the war.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Thursday, saying, “This is the beginning of the day after Hamas.”

“Evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not yet complete,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.

Netanyahu warned Hamas its leaders will be eliminated and called on those holding Israeli hostages captive to lay down their weapons and return the hostages, saying whoever does so will be allowed to “go out and live.”

He commended the “heroic soldiers” who carried out the operation and told the families of hostages still held in Gaza that it is “highest commitment” that Israel will continue “with all our strength until the return home of all your loved ones, who are our loved ones.”

US President Joe Biden also commended Israel on Sinwar’s killing in a statement, and then spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an official told CNN.

The two leaders also agreed that there is an opportunity to “advance the release” of the remaining hostages, according to the statement, and that they will work together to achieve this goal.

“I told him that we were pleased with his actions and further that, now is the time to move on,” Biden told reporters in Berlin. The US president also said he was planning to dispatch US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region soon.

The two leaders also discussed what the “day after” looks like in Gaza and how “we secure Gaza and move on,” Biden said.

Yahya Sinwar hosts a meeting over the escalation of tensions between Israel and the Gaza at Hamas President's office in Gaza City, on April 13, 2022.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, believed to be one of the architects of the militant group’s October 7, 2023, terror attack and Israel’s most wanted man, was killed in Gaza on Wednesday, according to the Israeli military.

Here are five things to know about Sinwar:

CNN’s Kareem Khadder, Tim Lister, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi, Tara John and David Shortell contributed reporting.