DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli foreign minister confirmed on Thursday that Israeli soldiers in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the current war.
"This is a military and moral achievement of the Israeli army," said the Foreign Minister, Israel Katz.
"The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility of immediately freeing the hostages and will lead to a new reality in Gaza, without Hamas and without Iranian control," Katz said in a statement.
Sinwar was one of the main architects of Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, and the Israelis have promised to kill him since the beginning of their offensive in Gaza. His death could be a severe blow to the militant group. He was the top leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip for years, closely linked to its military wing as it dramatically increased its capabilities.
Sinwar was chosen as the top leader of Hamas after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in July in an apparent Israeli attack in Tehran, the Iranian capital. Israel has also claimed to have killed the head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike, but the group has said he survived.
The US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the Israel investigation and US officials have been in close contact with Israeli officials all morning on Thursday, according to a senior US government official.
The report came as Israeli forces continued a major air and ground attack for over a week on the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. On Thursday, an Israeli attack hit a school housing displaced Palestinians, killing at least 15 people, including five children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Fares Abu Hamza, director of the emergency unit at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that dozens of people were injured. He mentioned that the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was having trouble attending to the victims.
"Many women and children are in critical condition," he pointed out.
The Israeli military forces said they attacked a command center managed by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad inside the school. They provided a list with dozens of names of people identified as fighters who were at the location when the attack was ordered. The list could not be verified immediately.
Israel has repeatedly attacked tent camps and schools occupied by Gazans displaced by the war. The army says it carries out precise attacks against insurgents and tries to avoid harming civilians, but often the victims are women and children.
On the other hand, a building in downtown Beirut housing offices of the news network Al Jazeera and the Norwegian embassy was evacuated after receiving a warning.
Mazen Ibrahim, head of the Al Jazeera office in Lebanon, stated that the building administration received three calls requesting everyone to evacuate the building, which, he said, also houses the embassies of Norway and Azerbaijan, as well as dozens of offices. It is not clear who issued the warning.
The spokesperson for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ragnhild Simenstad, said that the building had been evacuated after a "bomb threat," without providing further details.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of several buildings, as well as entire cities, towns, and villages, while attacking what it considers targets linked to the political-paramilitary group Hezbollah.