Israeli Military Says Yahya Sinwar Killed In Rafah: Use Vests, Bring Weapons And IDR 100 Million

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. (Source: IRNA)

JAKARTA - Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Palestinian Militant Group leader Hamas Yahya Sinwar was killed in Rafah, deemed trying to escape to northern Gaza, amid Israel's intensive onslaught.

IDF spokesman Doron Spielman said Sinwar was found dead not far from where six hostages were found in September, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Spielman told CNN, as quoted October 18, the Israeli ground forces and tanks were there because they believed, "very senior terrorist commanders" including Sinwar were in the area.

The troops were attacked, so they returned fire with tanks, he said. Then, when they went to inspect the building, they found Sinwar in the rubble.

The Hamas leadership was found along with three people, Spielman said, "one of them is a person who has been by his side all the time, namely the Commander of the Khan Younis Brigade Battalion. He also died in the rubble," but did not name the commander.

"All the goals of our operations in this area are to force Sinwar and other commanders out of their bunkers using very accurate intelligence in certain areas," he said.

"We tried to force him, in this case it worked, to the ground, moving so they would make mistakes," added Spielman.

As previously reported, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Yahya Sinwar was killed in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

"After completing the process of identifying the bodies, it can be ascertained that Yahya Sinwar has been killed," the IDF said.

The killings took place during a land operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where Israeli forces killed three militants and retrieved their bodies, Israeli Army Radio said.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Israel's pursuit of Sinwar over the past year had prompted him "to act like a fugitive, causing him to move locations several times."

He said the army had visited Sinwar during routine operations without knowing its whereabouts, unlike other operations against militant leaders based on comprehensive intelligence.

IDF spokesman Laksda Daniel Badminton said Thursday's press conference that Yahya Sinwar tried to flee to the north when he was killed in an Israeli attack.

"I believe he ran, moving from the underground complex to the houses while trying to escape north to a safer complex," mitigating IDF forces continued to operate in the compound in Tal al Sultan in Rafah, where Sinwar was killed, without knowing at the time that the old man was there.

"We continue to operate to check whether terrorists did not flee this area," said Laksda koli.

Israeli forces found Sinwar with vests, weapons and 40,000 shields (Rp166,006,678), an IDF spokesman said.

He added that he said Sinwar's DNA was found in a tunnel a few hundred meters from where the six hostages were killed earlier this year.