Visibly bloodied Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar feebly threw a stick to defend himself against an IDF drone just seconds before he was assassinated by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Footage captured by the remotely-controlled drone showed Sinwar, who Israel held chiefly responsible for the 'massacre and atrocities of October 7', almost camouflaged amid the rubble of a shelled-out building.
But towards the back of what was once a living room area, the drone honed in on Israel's premier target sitting on a dust-laden chair, his head covered in a scarf to hide his identity.
Sinwar was seen looking directly at the drone, peeking only through the small gap in the wrapping encasing his face, with his right hand wounded by bullets.
In his left hand, he briefly held aloft a stick before lobbing it slowly towards the drone.
This is the haunting moment visibly bloodied Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was identified as a terrorist by an IDF drone just seconds before he was assassinated by Israeli forces in Gaza
The drone flew towards what was once a living room area inside a shelled-out building in Gaza
Footage captured by the remotely-controlled machine showed Sinwar, who Israel held chiefly responsible for the 'massacre and atrocities of October 7', almost camouflaged amid the rubble of a shelled-out building
Sinwar can be seen looking directly at the drone, peeking only through the small gap in the wrapping encasing his face, with his right hand wounded by bullets
The footage ends with Israeli forces fatally striking the building moments later.
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, confirmed the Hamas leader had died and released the footage hours after the assassination took place, The Jerusalem Post reported.
During a press conference on Thursday, he said a drone had identified three terrorists, who were fleeing between buildings in Gaza.
He said: 'Sinwar fled alone into one of the buildings.
'Sinwar, who was injured in his hand by gunfire, can be seen here with his face covered, in his final moments, throwing a wooden plank at the drone.
'We identified him as a terrorist inside a building, fired at the building, and then went in to search.
'We found him with a vest, a pistol, and 40,000 shekels. He was on the run, fleeing, and our forces eliminated him.'
Hagari added: 'Sinwar was responsible for the most brutal attack against Israel in our history when terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel, massacred Israelis in their homes, raped our women, burned entire families alive and took over 250 men, women and children, babies, hostage to Gaza.
'For the past year, Sinwar tried to escape justice. He failed. We said we would find him and bring him to justice, and we did.
'It was Yahya Sinwar who decided to wage war with Israel while hiding behind civilians in Gaza.'
He added that 101 hostages still remain in captivity in 'brutal conditions'.
Israel's foreign minister also confirmed the news on Thursday.
'Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,' Israel Katz said in a statement.
He said Sinwar's death was 'a great military and moral achievement for Israel', adding that his death opens the possibility for the 'immediate release of the hostages' and change 'that will lead to a new reality in Gaza' without Hamas or Iranian 'control'.
Troops reported identifying a group of terrorists in a building at an undisclosed location in Gaza. After an exchange of fire, a tank shell was said to have hit the structure and collapsed it.
Graphic images circulated online purporting to show the body of the Hamas leader with Israeli soldiers surrounding it.
Israeli soldiers surrounding the corpse of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
Sinwar masterminded the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel
David H. Petraeus, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said the killing of Yahya Sinwar was 'bigger' than the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Speaking to the PM programme on Radio 4 he said: 'It is hard to overstate how important this is'.
'This is bigger than Osama Bin Laden, who was massively symbolic but not that operational...
'This is both hugely symbolic, he was after all the complete leader of Hamas... but also hugely operational.'
Sinwar had been a prime target for Israeli forces since October 7, but Israel had allegedly been hesitant to make an assassination attempt amid reports he was surrounded by Israeli hostages and was carrying a bag packed with explosives.
It is believed that Sinwar had been moving from place to place without the hostages since the end of August, when six abductees - Carmel Gat, Hirsch Goldberg-Poulin, Alex Lubnov, Almog Sarosi, Uri Danino and the late Aden Yerushalmi - were found dead in a tunnel, according to a new report by N12.
Israeli troops reported no sign of hostages at the location where he was killed today.
Israel reported earlier it was carrying out dental and DNA testing to ascertain whether Sinwar was among the victims of the strike.
Israeli police told the BBC that Sinwar's body was identified through dental records and fingerprints.
Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel for 22 years.
Sinwar is widely considered to be the chief architect the October 7 attacks on Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage by Hamas and other terror groups, according to Israeli tallies.
Following the massacre, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht vowed that Israeli troops would not rest until he was found and killed, and declared him a 'dead man walking'.
Sinwar had remained elusive throughout the year-long war in Gaza, hiding in the Hamas tunnel network beneath the Strip.
Sinwar became the Iran-backed Palestinian group's new leader after the killing of its former political chief Ismail Haniyeh (left) in July
Ismail Haniyeh with Sinwar in 2019
Hamas named Sinwar on August 6 as new political leader, a week after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh's killing in Tehran
Hamas' representative in Iran, Khaled Kaddoumi, called Sinwar a 'consensus choice' popular among all factions and involved in the group's decision-making throughout, including in negotiations
Israel's announcement on Sinwar comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike in Lebanon.
A slew of other Iran-backed militant commanders have also been killed in recent months.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13973055/Haunting-final-moments-Hamas-leader-Yahya-Sinwar-captured-IDF-drone-footage-killed-building-brought-tank-shell.html
The systematic assassination of Hamas's leadership sends a chilling message to their paymasters in Iran
A billboard of Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar hanging on a wall at the Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran
A Pro-Palestinian protester holds a picture of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a march near the White House in Washington earlier this month
The Palestinian militant group's leader Yahya Sinwar (pictured) was already plotting to carry out the October 7 attack in autumn 2022
Hezbollah was invited to join in on the attack
Iran's military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was in favour of the attack as well
Hamas planned a full-scale invasion of Israel on a much larger scale than the October 7 terror attacks, according to Israeli security officials, including a plot to blow up the Azrieli Centre's three towers (pictured)
Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar (pictured) has been killed. He had recently ordered his terrorists to resume suicide bombings.
Yahya Sinwar, then head of Hamas's political wing in Gaza, visits the house of fellow Hamas leader Nizar Awadallah (unseen) in Gaza City on March 10, 2021
The October 7 massacre, which was carried out by Hamas, sparked the war in Gaza. Pictured: A Palestinian man takes a selfie in front of a burning Israeli military vehicle
Palestinian militants move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023
Torture tactics of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar 'are revealed in secret diary' with techniques including burying victims alive in concrete
- Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar preferred to kill with his hands rather than using a gun, docs say
Sinwar, who was the top mastermind of the October 7 attack, preferred to kill with his hands than with a gun.
He also admitted to putting a man in a 'large grave' before 'suffocating him with a rag'.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (pictured in April 2023) used barbaric torture methods on his victims, including burying them alive in concrete, a 'secret diary' revealed. Israeli troops operating in Gaza uncovered documents from the terrorist group's headquarters that detail Sinwar's horrific crimes
The diary detailed the treatment of opposition leader Mahmoud Ishtiwi, who was accused in 2015 of 'immoral' acts, Hamas' code for homosexuality. Ishtiwi was a former member of the al-Qassam Brigades. The brigade is pictured
Ishtiwi was brutally executed in 2016 for 'behavioural and moral violations to which he confessed', according to a statement released by Hamas at the time.
But the newly discovered documents reveal the conditions under which he was interrogated and tortured, as well as the allegations he was forced to admit.
The opposition leader wrote that Sinwar is 'renowned for his cruelty' and said he 'almost buried me in Gaza, in the Shati camp', according to The Sun.
'They beat me 400-500 times … they held me blindfolded for five days … there were days in which I was beaten for 20 hours, and sometimes 48 hours … I was suspended by my arms and legs, swinging while four men whipped me,' Ishtiwi said.
He revealed that during interrogations Hamas terrorists took him to an open grave, told him 'this is your tomb' and threatened to 'pour concrete on you until it reaches your mouth'.
He said the militants noted that 'it won't be the first time we've done this'.
Ishtiwi added: 'I confessed more than once under torture.'
Further documents reportedly revealed transcripts from the more than 150 hours of interrogations Sinwar underwent when he was captured by Israel in 1989, arrested and sentenced to life.
Sinwar, in the interrogations, described how he took a man who admitted to being in contact with Israeli intelligence to a cemetery, 'tied his eyes with a rag so he couldn't see, put him in a large grave I saw, and suffocated him with a rag I had'.
He said that after strangling the man he wrapped him in a white cloth and closed the grave. Sinwar claimed that the victim had 'realised that he deserved to die'.
The Hamas leader, according to the documents, also told investigators that despite carrying a gun, he preferred to use his hands to kill.
Sinwar was released in 2011 as part of a deal with Israel.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13184497/Hamas-leader-yahya-sinwar-torture-tactics-revealed-diary.html
A fake ID as an UNRWA Teacher was found on Sinwar's body. Sinwar was on the move, trying to escape north.
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