[Jimbuna]

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been silent for months - now some Israelis believe he has been killed

In a windowless room, somewhere in the bowels of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters, Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi jabbed his index finger forward.

Israel had just assassinated the Hezbollah leader and was about to invade Lebanon when he summoned his generals and commanders to take instructions.

But pictures of the meeting released to the press showed a seemingly unrelated image in the background.

Up on a screen mounted on the wood-panelled wall are fourteen mugshots of the Hamas chain of command - most of them with a giant red cross over them to mark that they had been killed.

At the top of the chain was public enemy no 1, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, with his grey hair and salt and pepper beard. For the first time since the war began, he had a question mark over his head.

The image set off a fresh round of speculation that Israel’s most wanted, the man who planned and ordered the Oct 7 massacres, was finally dead.

A little over a week until the anniversary of the terror attacks this coming Monday, was it possible the IDF had finally got their man?

Rumours about his possible death had emerged a few weeks earlier when intelligence officials began briefing that one of the precision airstrikes that had levelled Gaza may have killed the leader.

No concrete evidence has emerged since, but the pattern follows similar high-level assassinations in Gaza, which have taken a few weeks to be publicly announced.

Two well-placed Israeli officials told The Telegraph that the defence establishment believes that Sinwar is now dead.

One of the sources said that “it is highly likely that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated in one of the IDF strikes. The assessments in Israel’s security leadership suggest that Sinwar was most likely killed.”

However, plenty of caution remains. Sceptics question the timing around the Oct 7 anniversary and how Israel would have killed a man said to have been hidden deep underground and surrounded, according to reports, by Israeli hostages.

Sinwar could have decided the best way to keep himself safe as assassinations take down his top leaders is to retreat entirely from view. American officials told the New York Times they believed Sinwar is still alive and making key decisions for Hamas.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...1a638f15&ei=75