Israel claims Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed
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00:00And you're watching our rolling coverage of the breaking news that Yair Sinwar has been killed
00:06in the Gaza Strip. We've just been told, we've just been confirmed by the Israeli military
00:12that he killed, that he was killed on Wednesday. That is yesterday. He was killed on Wednesday in
00:19southern Gaza Strip in Rafah in a gunfight and his body was then taken to Jerusalem to be
00:26identified. We don't know when his body was recovered by the Israelis but we are now hearing
00:31that it was on Wednesday that he was killed. Yair Sinwar is the man Israel accused of masterminding
00:39the October 7th attacks. He was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza in 1962.
00:46His family were refugees from Majdal Ashkelon or what became Ashkelon after the creation of Israel.
00:53Sinwar spent 23 years of his life in Israeli prisons for allegedly planning the abduction
00:58and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1988. He was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner
01:05exchange deal. An Israeli government assessment described him as ruthless and powerful. Sinwar
01:11used his time in jail to learn Hebrew and became fluent in the language. He became Hamas leader
01:17this year after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
01:24While Palestinians in Gaza have been reacting to the killing of Sinwar, let's take a listen.
01:31He knows his fate as martyrdom in God's name. All the Palestinian people know they're martyrs
01:36thanks be to God. They did not only assassinate Yair Sinwar, they also assassinated Ismail Haniyeh,
01:43they assassinated Hassan Nasrallah and the war did not stop. We are not asking for them
01:48to assassinate this person or that. They have assassinated most of our leaders. We are calling
01:53for the war to stop. We heard this news but even if he is martyred, the war continues.
02:01Mohammed Javdoun is in Jordan's capital Amman. That's because the Israeli government has banned
02:06Al Jazeera for several months now from reporting inside Israel. So Mohammed Javdoun, we have just
02:12been getting the confirmation that we've been waiting for from the Israeli military that indeed
02:17Yair Sinwar has been killed. Very interesting to note the timing of his death yesterday,
02:25Wednesday. What more do we know?
02:30That's right, Laura. Let me read you and our viewers the statement that just moments ago
02:35was released finally by Israel's army. It reads in part that the Israeli army confirms that after
02:41a year-long pursuit yesterday, Wednesday, October 16th, 2024, IDF soldiers from the
02:47southern command eliminated Yair Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in
02:53an operation in the southern Gaza Strip. It goes on to say that Israeli army soldiers of the 828th
03:02brigade operating in the area identified and eliminated three terrorists after completing
03:07the process of identifying the body. It can be confirmed that Yair Sinwar was eliminated.
03:13Not a lot more operational details beyond that. What we know from leaks that have been provided
03:18to the Israeli media by Israeli army officials earlier in the evening is that this was not any
03:24kind of an intelligence operation. These were Israeli soldiers that came across three armed
03:30gunmen, as they said, and they engaged in a firefight with them. And then once they saw the
03:36bodies, they suspected that one of those bodies belonged to Yair Sinwar. Then those bodies
03:42were moved, as you mentioned earlier, to Jerusalem, and there were DNA tests that
03:47have been carried out. Finally, it has now been confirmed. One of the reasons, of course,
03:51that it didn't take longer to finalize the identification through this DNA testing
03:56is because Yair Sinwar had been a prisoner in an Israeli prison for years, and so the Israelis
04:03already had his DNA and his fingerprints on file. That made the process of identifying, confirming
04:08that it was Yair Sinwar who had been killed, that made it much easier and much less time consuming.
04:14Now, we're also seeing statements from Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, confirming that he
04:21had been killed, Sinwar had been killed, and we're starting to see other Israeli political leaders
04:26also commenting on their social media channels that Sinwar has been killed. Of course, this will
04:31be seen as a great victory in Israel for the Israeli army, and to that end, we are seeing
04:37a lot of videos posted on social media in various cities across Israel of parts of the population
04:44that are celebrating. We are seeing videos of people dancing in the streets, dancing along
04:48the beach. We are seeing videos of families having dinner and people popping champagne corks and
04:53drinking to the news that Yair Sinwar had been killed. Up until now, it hadn't been officially
04:59confirmed by the Israeli army. Now it has been, and what we are awaiting next is it's expected
05:05that in about half an hour from now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing
05:11Israelis and giving more details about all that has transpired in this past day and a half.
05:17Okay, well, we'll certainly be listening out for that. You talk about celebrations there amongst the
05:22Israeli population. Of course, not everyone is celebrating. We've also got pictures coming
05:27from Tel Aviv of the captives, relatives, and friends protesting. It remains a somber mood there
05:35amongst those protesters because, of course, for them, nothing has changed. Their loved ones are still
05:40inside Gaza, and there's now maybe more questions as to how they get released, as we don't know
05:46who is going to be negotiating on behalf of Hamas.
05:54That's right, Laura, and in fact, we've already seen a statement that was released by the
05:59Hostages Families Forum in Israel, in which they have commended the Israeli army for carrying out
06:06the killing of Yair Sinwar, but they're also demanding that the government, and especially
06:11the Prime Minister, now really focus on trying to leverage what has been achieved to try and enter
06:17once again into mediation to get a ceasefire and to get a prisoner and captive swap deal going.
06:25They have been coming out week after week since October 7th, demanding that the Prime Minister,
06:31that the government do more to focus more attention on the plight of their loved ones who
06:35remain captive in Gaza, and now they are saying this is the right moment. To that end, we are also
06:41seeing quotes throughout the Israeli media landscape, just in the past hour, a lot of
06:47Israeli political analysts who are close to the government are starting to suggest in various
06:53articles that Netanyahu is going to be facing a lot of pressure in the days to come to try to
06:59come up finally with some type of a ceasefire deal so that those captives can be released.
07:04There are other analysts who are saying this is the perfect moment for him to try to go ahead
07:09and enter into mediation once more and get this deal done. One of the things that people in Israel
07:15have considered this past year is they have said in poll after poll that the only way that they
07:21will see what Israel has done when it comes to its war on Gaza as a total victory is if Israel
07:27is able to finally get the remaining captives back to their loved ones as well. So that's always
07:32factored into the thinking of what a victory for Israel's army might look like when it comes to
07:38most of Israel's population. The question now is will Netanyahu want to expend political capital
07:44to actually do this? And beyond that, another important question is who exactly will be talking
07:49on behalf of Hamas? In late July, of course, there was the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh,
07:55the previous leader of Hamas. That happened in Tehran. He had been the person at the forefront
08:00of negotiations before that. Once he had been assassinated, then you had Sinwar, essentially,
08:06who was communicating on behalf of Hamas. He had been elected to be the leader of Hamas,
08:10and he was the person that was at the forefront of trying to come up with the conditions for some
08:16type of settlement when it comes to getting into a ceasefire deal. And, of course, now Sinwar has
08:21been eliminated. Now, of course, those talks have been off track for a long time, and there has been
08:26no real push in the last couple of months to try to get a deal going when it comes to a ceasefire
08:32in Gaza and a prisoner and captive swap. But now there are suggestions that that could once again
08:38be on the table. But again, one of the key questions is going to be is who is going to be
08:42the person when it comes to Hamas, you know, that mediators can speak with to try and actually get
08:49something like this done going forward. Laura? Okay, Mojahed, many thanks indeed for the moment
08:54joining us there from Amman, bringing us the Israeli perspective.