A drone found Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. His DNA showed he hid with hostages

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A drone found ****** leader Yahya Sinwar. His DNA showed he hid with hostages

Almost two months before *******’s military accidentally located ******’ leader with the help of a drone, then ******* him, Yahya Sinwar had been hiding in southern Gaza with six ******** hostages − one of them an ********* citizen.

The bodies of the hostages were recovered by *******’s military in late August after they were ********* by their captors in a near-miss rescue effort by the ******* Defense Forces. It set off a wave of protests and widespread rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The revelation, first reported this week by *******’s

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broadcaster and confirmed to USA TODAY by a person familiar with the matter Friday, comes amid intense speculation over who might succeed Sinwar as the leader of ****** − and, ultimately, what impact his ****** will have on the pace and intensity of the war in Gaza, whether it will accelerate efforts to reach a cease-***** and ******** deal after more than a year of fighting or intensify the conflict across the region.

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, a senior member of ******’ Qatar-based political wing, said Friday in a statement that Sinwar’s ****** did not mark the end of the organization and that the group “cannot be eliminated.” ******’ Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah vowed to escalate its ****** with ******* after Sinwar’s ******, and Iran, which backs both groups with finance and weapons, said Sinwar’s ****** would strengthen regional “resistance” to *******.

Sinwar, 61, is widely regarded as the chief planner and orchestrator of ******’ Oct. 7, 2023, ******* on *******. He was ******* by *******’s military on Thursday during what appeared to be a routine search for ****** militants in a building in Rafah shelled by *******’s forces. In other words, Sinwar was stumbled upon.

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Sinwar’s body was identified by DNA, dental and fingerprint records ******* obtained decades earlier when he spent years in an ******** prison for ******** IDF soldiers and alleged ************ collaborators with *******.

Drone footage released by the IDF on Thursday appeared to show Sinwar’s final moments before he was *******. The footage shows a drone entering a building with blown-out windows. Everything is covered in dust. The drone flies close to a man sitting in a chair. His face is covered. After a few seconds, the man picks up what looks like a stick or piece of debris and throws it at the drone. A short while later, the IDF shelled the building.

Drone news:

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Sinwar was later identified as the man in the video, although ******** military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sinwar had been identified only as a ****** fighter, not the group’s leader, when he was ******* by the shell. He said that Sinwar was found wearing a bulletproof vest and that he had grenades and about $11,000 in cash with him.

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******* ****** leader Yahya Sinwar gestures during an anti-******* rally in Gaza City, on May 24, 2021.

About 1,200 people were ******* and 251 kidnapped and taken to Gaza in ******’ raids on ******** communities near the border last year. ******* believes about 100 hostages are still in Gaza, alive or *****. *******’s officials stressed Thursday that none were discovered with Sinwar in the building where he ***** alongside two of his bodyguards.

But the shelling, and an ensuing firefight, that took his life did take place in the same area of Rafah where the six hostages were ******* in August, according to the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. That has led to speculation over whether Sinwar may have been forced to hide above ground since late August after he fled the tunnel complex where the six hostages were held.

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The person familiar with the matter said it was likely though not yet fully corroborated that Sinwar gave a direct order for the hostages to be ******* as he fled a tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza that was being searched by the IDF and Shin Bet, *******’s internal security service.

The bodies of ********-********* Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Almog Sarusi, 26, Alex Lobanov, 32, and Carmel Gat, 40, were found in a narrow, 400-foot-long tunnel in Rafah on Aug. 31. ******* believes they were ********* by their ****** captors probably two days earlier as the IDF closed in on their location. The IDF recovered Sinwar’s DNA in the tunnel complex where the bodies of the ******* hostages were found.

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Gil Dickmann, Gat’s cousin, said in a news conference Thursday that his family felt “justice has been served” with the elimination of Sinwar.

“People ask us whether we’re happy. Our happiness cannot be complete until all the hostages are here in *******. What we celebrate is not the elimination of our enemies. That’s not enough for us. We celebrate life, and we will celebrate when the hostages come back home.”

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been ******* by ******* in Gaza over the past year, according to the ******-run health ministry. ******* has since the start of war come under enormous U.S. and international pressure over the high rate of civilian deaths and its ******** to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Netanyahu has said Sinwar’s ****** does not mean the war in Gaza is over, though the Biden administration has seized on his ******** as an opportunity, it says, to revive talks between ******* and ****** for a long-discussed temporary cease-***** and push for an end of the war in the Middle East.

After ****** leader Sinwar’s ******: Biden, Harris push for end to Gaza war

There is little evidence to suggest such talks are imminent.

It is also difficult to accurately assess the future trajectory of ******.

Kobi Michael, former head of the ************ desk at *******’s ministry of strategic affairs and now a senior researcher at *******’s Institute for National Strategic Studies and the Misgav Institute think tank, said ****** has “several options” when it comes to Sinwar’s replacement.

The “most natural one,” he said, may be Sinwar’s brother, Mohammed, leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of ******.

Michael said Mohammed Sinwar doesn’t have “the charisma or the ideological, historical and religious perspective that his brother had, but he has a lot of experience,” including in the 2006 kidnapping and abduction of ******** soldier Gilad Shalit. Mohammed Sinwar also oversaw the building of ******’ tunnel infrastructure in Gaza.

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Michael said that after a year of fighting, ****** has been left with “marginal military capacities.” He estimated that of the about 40,000 fighters ****** had a year ago, it now probably has 10,000 to 15,000. He said ****** has been able to attract new recruits, but they are young, poorly trained and inexperienced.

Many are teenagers.

“****** is now left with guerrilla and ******* warfare against the IDF in Gaza,” Michael said.

“But they are very limited in their success. From time to time they launch a rocket or two, but ****** is at the end of the road militarily. That does not mean ******* will reach every last ********** or RPG in Gaza,” he said, using an acronym for a rocket-propelled grenade.

Michael added: “It does mean ****** will not be able to control Gaza effectively. Not from the governmental point of view. Not from the military point of view. Not from the point of view of being able to create a security threat as they were able to on Oct. 7.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:

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