It took the Israeli army more than a year to find and kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza — and it ultimately did so by chance, only discovering his identity after killing him. The Israeli government had repeatedly claimed Sinwar was hiding in an underground bunker, surrounded by human shields in the form of Israeli hostages. But rather than tracking him down there, soldiers encountered him above ground in a building in Rafah, when he opened fire at them.
Israel’s military, politicians, and media roundly celebrated killing the man responsible for orchestrating the October 7 massacres. Photos of Sinwar’s mutilated and dust-covered body, lying in a pit of rubble, and videos of his last moments inside the building where he was killed were widely circulated as a kind of “victory image.” “The man who committed the most terrible massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust was eliminated today,” Netanyahu declared, after the army confirmed that the body belonged to Sinwar. “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the beginning of the day after Hamas.” ….more
