Israel says it killed Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar

• The Israeli military said it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during an operation in Gaza.

The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during an operation in Gaza, eliminating the architect of the massacre that Hamas executed on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military said in a statement that soldiers from its Southern Command killed Sinwar on Wednesday.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military said it was checking the possibility that it had killed Sinwar along with two other unnamed "terrorists" but could not confirm whether it had done so.

"In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. "The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution."

Sinwar's death is a significant turning point for Israel and its yearlong war to eradicate Hamas. The Israeli government, with US support, had made it a key objective to kill him following its October 7 attacks, which left 1,200 people dead and triggered the war in Gaza and wider hostilities across the Middle East.

But despite months of intense Israeli air and ground operations that have leveled much of Gaza, Sinwar managed to remain elusive. Israel's military has used heavy weapons, including 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, to collapse Hamas' sprawling tunnel network under Gaza, where he was believed to be hiding.

"Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in a rather opaque post on social media after the IDF first said that it was checking to see whether Sinwar was dead.

The conflict has been at an impasse with Sinwar missing and Hamas, under his authority, rejecting cease-fire talks. In the meantime, Israel's military opened a northern front with a ground invasion into southern Lebanon in an effort to end the shelling by Hamas ally Hezbollah. Israel's devastating Gaza war has left over 40,000 Palestinians dead — most of them civilians, per local assessments. And there are dire warnings that amid the fighting, the humanitarian crisis is worsening.

The 62-year-old Sinwar had been the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017 and the leader of its political wing following the July assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

The killing of Sinwar comes after Israel took out most of Hezbollah's leadership in Lebanon, including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, and amid heightened tensions with Iran, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas.