The Israeli’s have been hunting for Yahya Sinwar, a LONG time…..
He was the mastermind of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and has been the headline head of the Hamas fight against Israel….
Some are hoping with Sinwar gone there could be some sort of cease fire in the conflict…….
The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that Yahya Sinwar, the powerful and elusive militant leader who has been the No. 1 target for Israel since the beginning of the war, had been killed in battle.
Mr. Sinwar was viewed as the architect of the brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel that set off the 13-month war that has plunged the Gaza Strip into a humanitarian crisis and began a wider conflict that now includes the fighting in Lebanon.
After a firefight in Gaza on Wednesday with Hamas forces, Israeli soldiers retrieved a body that appeared to be that of Mr. Sinwar. The police in Israel said they had used Mr. Sinwar’s dental records and fingerprints, both of which were on file, to identify the body. There was no immediate response from Hamas.
Since launching the assault on Hamas in Gaza last October in retaliation for Hamas’s cross-border raids, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 abducted, Israeli officials have repeatedly said that their goal was nothing less than the destruction of the militant group.
But no target loomed larger for Israel than Mr. Sinwar himself. Over his past year in hiding in the devastated enclave, he was believed to still be closely overseeing Hamas military operations.
Mr. Sinwar’s death raises hopes for an end to a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Gazans and plunged many more into a humanitarian crisis.
His death might encourage Hamas to agree to Israeli demands, and might also offer Israel a military success that could lead the Netanyahu government to ease its negotiating stance. Hamas and the Israeli government have remained far apart on key issuesduring months of negotiations over a truce.
Here’s what else to know:
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Identifying the body: Israeli officials matched Mr. Sinwar’s dental records and fingerprints with records on file, the Israel Police said in a statement. The matches provided “definitive identification” of the Hamas leader, the police said.
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Reaction in Israel: For the families of the dozens of hostages remaining in Gaza, the death of Mr. Sinwar brought both a moment of satisfaction and deep trepidation for the fate of the captives.
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Hamas leadership: Mr. Sinwar’s death deals a significant blow to the militant organization’s leadership. These are some of the remaining leaders of the militant group…..
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The US sends B-2 Bombers to strike Houthi underground target’s….
The Pentagon conducted a series of precision airstrikes against Houthi military sites inside Yemen early Thursday, with Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers and U.S. Navy assets in the region teaming up for the attack.
The strikes targeted five “hardened underground facilities housing missiles,weapons components, and other munitions” allegedly used by the Iran-backed terrorists to attack commercial shipping vessels traveling along Yemen’s coast over the past 11 months, U.S. defense officials at Central Command announced late Wednesday.
Rewind: Satellite imagery analysis from February showed the Houthis had “undertaken a major expansion of underground military facilities” in addition to the “caves and simple tunnels [the group used] in their earliest days,” researcher Fabian Hinz noted for the International Institute of Strategic Studies in the spring.
Notable: CENTCOM forces have attacked underground weapons-storage facilities inside Yemen before, including in late March—but U.S. officials did not use B-2s for that operation.
Trivia: B-2s seem to have last been used in combat nearly eight years ago for strikes against ISIS fighters in Libya. …
Note…
One might question why US Air Force B-2’s were sent on this mission since US Air Force F-15’s or US Navy F-18’s could do the same?
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