The Israeli military has released drone footage claiming to show the final moments of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. In the video, Sinwar is seen alone in a ruined Gaza apartment, with walls blown out from shelling. Dust covers his figure as he sits hunched in a chair, his face obscured by a scarf. His right arm appears severely injured, and he is seen flinging a stick toward the approaching drone. The footage has not been independently verified by *The Guardian*.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari described Sinwar as initially identified as a fighter. After the footage was taken, the military fired another shell at the building, causing it to collapse and killing Sinwar. Hagari stated that Sinwar was found with a bulletproof vest, grenades, and 40,000 shekels ($10,707). According to Hagari, Sinwar had fled into the building alone, where Israeli forces used a drone to locate him. In the footage, he is seen injured, with his face covered, throwing a wooden plank at the drone. Hagari remarked, “He tried to escape, and our forces eliminated him.”
Hamas has yet to comment on Sinwar’s death. Photographs circulating online show a body resembling Sinwar’s, with a head wound and dressed in a military-style vest, half-buried in rubble.
Sinwar was found by Israeli infantry in the Tal El Sultan area of southern Gaza. The troops had spotted three suspected militants and engaged in a gunfight, during which Sinwar escaped into the building where he was later killed.
Before his death, Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war, had stopped using phones and other devices that could have been tracked by Israeli intelligence. It was believed that he had been hiding in Gaza’s extensive network of tunnels, but Israeli forces had uncovered many of these tunnels, limiting his ability to evade capture.
Israeli intelligence had been closing in on Sinwar for months, and dental records, fingerprints, and DNA testing ultimately confirmed his death.
