Israeli military says it is 'checking possibility' it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - as 'images of his body' emerge

The Israeli military says it is "checking the possibility" it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – as pictures emerged purporting to show his body.

Warning: This story contains an image readers may find distressing

The 62-year-old, who has led Hamas within Gaza since 2017, is believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October 2023 attacks.

A senior Israeli official told Sky News it was "probable" Sinwar had been killed.

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Photographs circulating online claimed to show Sinwar's dead body in the hours before the Israeli military released its statement.

The images have not been independently verified.

Israel is waiting for DNA test results to come back before it can confirm if the body is Sinwar, a senior official in the country has said.

They added that it may take a couple of hours for the results to come through.

If his death is confirmed, it will mean Israel has eliminated its main target since it began strikes and ground invasions in Gaza in response to the Hamas incursion last year.

"During IDF operations in Gaza, three terrorists were eliminated," the Israeli military said in a statement earlier today.

"The IDF and ISA are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed.

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

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Hamas has not yet commented on the reports, but sources from the group, quoted by Reuters news agency, said there were indications he had been killed.

US officials told Sky News' US partner NBC News that the Israeli mission seemed to have been carried out on Wednesday, possibly in Rafah.

They added that the US was not involved and did not provide intelligence, with senior Pentagon officials only finding out after the operation had been carried out.

US sources believe that, if confirmed, the killing of Sinwar was a "lucky break" for the Israeli military, NBC also reported.

Sinwar took over full leadership of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, who was the political leader of the group, in Iran in July.

He is believed to have been hiding in the network of tunnels beneath Gaza since the militant group's attack on Israel last year.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on Israel's investigation into whether it has killed the Hamas leader, and US officials have been in close contact with Israeli officials throughout Thursday morning, according to a senior administration official.

It comes as Israeli forces continued a more than week-old major air and ground assault in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

An Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinians on Thursday, killing at least 28 people, including five children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The war in Gaza is now more than a year old - with Israel having killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in response to Hamas' incursion on 7 October last year, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Hamas killed some 1,200 people and captured around 250 hostages when its militants entered Israel on 7 October.

(c) Sky News 2024: Israeli military says it is 'checking possibility' it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - as 'imag