Around 10 a.m. on 16 October 2024, Israeli soldiers in Rafah noticed a figure going in and out of a building nearby. They were conscripts from the 828th Bislamach Brigade, out on what Israeli accounts describe as a routine patrol, and they were ordered to engage. They had no idea who they were watching.
By 3 p.m. an Israeli drone had picked up three militants leaving the building, two draped in blankets and clearing a path for the third. The troops opened fire and the group split up. Two men entered one building. The third went alone into another and climbed to the second floor. In the firefight that followed, an Israeli soldier was severely wounded.
A tank fired a shell at the third man’s position and infantry began sweeping the building. He threw two grenades at them; only one detonated. The troops pulled back and sent in a drone, which found an injured man with his face covered trying to swat it away with a stick. More tank fire, a MATADOR rocket and machine-gun fire followed. The man was Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader Israel had hunted since the October 7 attacks.
Identification
The soldiers did not know. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said the troops “didn’t know he was there but we continued to operate.” The unit went back the next day and found a body in the wrecked building that bore a strong resemblance to Sinwar. It carried a grenade and a gun, along with 40,000 shekels in cash, a lighter and a passport belonging to a UNRWA teacher.
Because of suspected booby traps, troops first cut off a finger and sent it to Israel for testing. The body followed later that day. Dental records, fingerprints and DNA testing confirmed the match, and Hamas acknowledged his death on 18 October.
The autopsy added an awkward detail. Chen Kugel, chief forensic pathologist at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, found that Sinwar died of severe traumatic brain injury from a gunshot wound to the head. The IDF had said the fighting ended with a tank shell.
Reaction
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the killing had “settled the score”, then warned the war would go on at full force until the hostages came home. President Joe Biden called it “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
Hamas struck a different note. Basem Naim, in the statement confirming the death, said: “Hamas becomes stronger and more popular with each elimination of its leaders.” Analysts were split. Brian Carter of the Institute for the Study of War wrote that the death would not change the course of the war, since Hamas still has capable commanders.
Sinwar had led Hamas in Gaza since February 2017 and was named head of its political bureau on 6 August 2024, after Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated. Israeli security officials had reportedly known for months that he was hiding in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah, though not exactly where. The US said it helped narrow the search through intelligence but took no part in the operation that killed him.
