Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader behind Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel, confirmed killed

Less than a year later, Hamas militants rampaged through southern Israel, carrying out the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history. Israeli officials say 1,200 died and over 240 were taken hostage. Health officials in Gaza say that more than 42,000 people have died in Israel’s subsequent invasion. 

“The Israeli assessment that Sinwar prioritized his governance project in Gaza over attacking Israel was wrong,” Levitt said. “In fact, he was for years, at least two, specifically planning how to do an attack that would be so gruesome that the Israelis would have to go into Gaza.”

Sinwar, Levitt added, understood that he “would lose his governance project in Gaza,” and welcomed the opportunity to be relieved of it.  

Within days of the Oct. 7 attacks, Sinwar was being credited as their mastermind, along with Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ armed wing.

Israel said in August that it had confirmed Deif’s death but Sinwar was able to evade the Israeli military — until this week. 

Military commanders, current and former security officials and experts who have liaised with Hamas in the past told NBC News in January that he most likely stayed on the move, changing locations to avoid detection and hiding out in the deep maze of tunnels that Hamas had dug below Gaza.

But that didn’t stop him from becoming Hamas’ political leader in August after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Haniyeh was killed in an explosion after he had participated in the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Israel has been blamed for the strike, which also killed Haniyeh’s bodyguard, but has not commented on the attack.