Israel confirmed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year, has been killed in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz calling it a "victory for the entire free world."
The Israeli military confirmed in a post on X that Sinwar was dead.
"Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers," Katz said in a written statement from his office.
"This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the axis of evil of radical Islam led by Iran."
The military earlier said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building where two other militants were killed.
The death of Sinwar would represent a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.
Israel's Army Radio said the incident had occurred during a targeted ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.
Israel has samples of Sinwar's DNA from his period in an Israeli jail.
Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel's wanted list ever since. But he has so far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.
Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut last month as well as much of the top leadership of the group's military wing.
