Israeli military kill Hezbollah commander Sinwar in Gaza

The Israeli army has claimed that it has killed Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, a Hezbollah commander, in Taybeh, southern Lebanon, in an air strike, Al Jazeera reported.

It also said it located and destroyed rocket launchers primed to attack northern Israel, while its troops uncovered Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon.

Israel’s military said its air force carried out an estimated 150 attacks on sites in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon on Thursday, including munitions warehouses, rocket launch sites, and sniper and observation posts.

During the night, “the combat team” of Israel’s Givati Brigade joined forces with Division 162 in the siege and ground offensive against Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the territory, the military said. Attacks by the air force on Thursday in Jabalia had “eliminated dozens of terrorists”, the military added.

An estimated 400,000 Palestinians have been trapped by the Israeli military’s two-week-long siege of the north of the Strip, where supplies of food, water and medicine have not entered and rescue workers are unable to recover the bodies of people killed in the streets and trapped under the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel.

The Israeli Air Force also attacked a cell it said was preparing to fire an antitank missile at Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.

Israel claims its forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza. There has been no comment from Hamas on Sinwar, who succeeded Ismail Haniyeh after his assassination by Israel in July.

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu says “this is not the end of the war in Gaza”, after claiming Sinwar was killed.

United States

President Joe Biden said Sinwar’s death marks a moment of relief for Israelis while providing the opportunity for a “day after” in Gaza without the group in power.

“Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists. But much work remains before us,” Biden said in a statement.

“I will be speaking soon with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them, to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all, which has caused so much devastation to innocent people,” Biden said.

Vice President Kamala Harris hailed Sinwar’s death and said it is a chance to “finally end the war in Gaza”.

“Justice has been served,” Harris told reporters. “Sinwar was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people, including the victims of October 7 and hostages killed in Gaza.

“Today I can only hope that the families of the victims of Hamas feel a sense and measure of relief,” she added.

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