News, analysis, and background on the ongoing conflict
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s SitRep.
Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Israel says it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleges North Korean troops are joining Moscow’s war effort, and India does damage control in Washington amid further claims by Canada that Indian officials were involved in assassinating a Sikh separatist in the country.
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s SitRep.
Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Israel says it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleges North Korean troops are joining Moscow’s war effort, and India does damage control in Washington amid further claims by Canada that Indian officials were involved in assassinating a Sikh separatist in the country.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed in an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in the most significant blow to the militant group since the start of the war.
The Israeli military confirmed in a post on X on Thursday that Sinwar had been “eliminated.” “Justice has been delivered. Every single terrorist who harms Israelis will pay the price,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on X.
Sinwar was a singular figure who shaped Hamas in his image, and he will not be easily replaced, experts said. His death could have profound reverberations for the course of the war and the future of the militant group.
“Sinwar had very unique attributes,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian Authority negotiator and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “He was someone who had very strong standing in both the political and military wing[s]” of the organization.
Cold-blooded and calculating. As Hamas’s leader inside Gaza since 2017, Sinwar had long dominated the group’s military wing, and he was one of the principal architects of the bloody Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel alongside Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in July.
Sinwar took over leadership of the group’s political wing as well following the assassination of its former leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in July, further consolidating his power. U.S. officials have said in briefings with reporters that they believed that Sinwar had long had the final say on the group’s position on a potential cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Widely regarded to be cold-blooded and calculating, Sinwar formerly served as the chief of Hamas’s internal security unit, which was responsible for identifying and often killing Palestinians suspected of........