Middle East crisis live: Israeli army says it is ‘checking possibility’ it killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who masterminded the 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, may have been killed, according to the Israeli military.

“During Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated. The IDF [is] checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” a statement released on Thursday afternoon local time said.

“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”

Several security officials, speaking anonymously, told Israel media that the bodies had been taken to Israel for DNA tests, and that the IDF assesses “with high probability” that one of those killed was Sinwar.

Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies were found with lots of cash and fake IDs.

It has long been believed that Sinwar had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages to lessen the likelihood of being killed. However, in a statement, the prime minister’s office said that no hostages were believed to have been present.

Read the full report here:

AP have reported more details on reports that Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a military operation in Gaza (see 13.53 BST).

The military said in a statement on Thursday that three militants were killed during operations in Gaza, without elaborating. It said the identities of the three were so far not confirmed, but it was “checking the possibility” that one of the three was Sinwar.

It said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. He was chosen as the group’s top leader following the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh in July in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran.

According to a breaking news line by Reuters, an Israeli military spokesperson said that there is a possibility that Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been “eliminated”. Reuters adds that the Israeli military are checking this.

We will update with more information as it comes in.

Al Jazeera staff evacuated their offices in downtown Beirut on Thursday afternoon after receiving messages warning them to leave the building, similar to past evacuation warnings from Israel that preceded bombings, the network reported. Two embassies, one of which is the Norwegian embassy, is also housed in the same building were also evacuated.

Al Jazeera’s office is located in the heart of downtown Beirut, a kilometer from the iconic Blue Mosque and Martyr’s Square where displaced people are residing.

People in Lebanon have been receiving messages and calls warning them to evacuate prior to Israeli bombing over the last month, since Israel started its Operation Northern Arrows on 23 September. Some of these messages have turned out to be false alarms, causing mass panic and leading to arrests of perpetrators by Lebanese security forces.

William Christou is a Beirut-based journalist writing on Lebanon for the Guardian.

About 345,000 Palestinians face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said on Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine across the Palestinian territory.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that this is up from the 133,000 people currently categorised as experiencing “catastrophic food insecurity”, according to a classification compiled by UN agencies and NGOs.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have vowed to retaliate after the United States conducted multiple strikes with heavy B-2 bombers on weapons storage facilities in areas controlled by the Iran-backed group.

A statement from the Iran-backed Houthis’ political bureau said:

We confirm that the American aggression will not pass without a response.

At least 19 Palestinians, including children, were killed on Thursday after an Israeli strike hit a school in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip that is sheltering displaced people, a Gaza health ministry official told Reuters.

Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas, adding: “There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing.”