Sources quoting the forensic pathologist who headed the autopsy in Israel, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, was killed by a bullet that wounded him in the head. Israeli military presents drone footage from Gaza it says shows Sinwar sitting in a chair alone in a room wrecked by shelling with a severely wounded arm.
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Sinwar was found badly wounded in an accidental Israeli operation on Wednesday in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah by a drone inside a destroyed building. Then, after his death, to identify him, Israeli authorities carried out DNA tests after cutting off the finger from the body.
The leader of the Palestinian Islamist militant group was initially wounded in the forearm of his right arm during an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers, Chen Kugel, director of the Israeli Institute of Forensic Medicine, who oversaw the autopsy and shared his findings with the newspaper, told the New York Times.
After his injury, the Hamas leader wrapped an electrical cord around his arm, "but that wouldn't have been enough anyway (...) It wasn't firm enough and his forearm was shattered," the coroner told the NYT.
Wounded, Sinwar was then killed by a bullet to the head, according to Dr. Kugel.
Israeli military presents drone footage from Gaza it says shows Sinwar sitting in a chair alone in a room wrecked by shelling with a severely wounded arm.
Warning: video shows scenes that some viewers may find distressing
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had been operating "in recent weeks" inside the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, following reports of a possible presence of high-ranking Hamas officials there.
"Yahya Sinwar was hiding inside areas that we had already inspected," but "we didn't know he was there," according to Rear Admiral Haghari.
The military had spotted "three terrorists moving from house to house" on Wednesday and there had been an exchange of fire at the time.
"Sinwar then rushed alone into a building" and was "wounded in one arm by gunfire," Hagarhi said.
The Israeli military said the Hamas leader had a pistol and 40,000 shekels (about $10,000) on him.
Who was Yahya Sinwar?
Yahya Sinwar is considered the "architect" of Hamas' attacks on October 7, 2023 and is Israel's most wanted man, a "walking dead." An unnamed Israeli official said earlier this month that Sinwar was dead, but his death had not been officially confirmed.
Born in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Yahya Sinwar joined Hamas in the 1980s. He was close to Hamas' founder, Ahmad Yassin, and founded the group's internal security organs. He was jailed for 23 years by Israel on charges of killing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the Israeli army.
He was released in 2011, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with more than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners, in a prisoner exchange in exchange for a single Israeli soldier held by Hamas, Gilat Shalit.
In 2013, Yahya Sinwar was elected to Hamas' political bureau in the Gaza Strip, before replacing Ismail Haniyeh as leader of the movement in the Palestinian enclave in 2017. His influence and prestige in Hamas grew to the point that Israeli security officials began to notice him.
After the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, the 62-year-old Sinwar succeeded him as head of the political wing, taking control of the entire group.
