It was not a typical planned, stealth operation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that killed Hamas political chief Yahya Sinwar. Instead, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks was killed in a "chance encounter" with IDF soldiers on patrol duty, who had no idea that were engaging one of the most-wanted men in their country's recent history!
Although the picture is not fully clear about the circumstances that led to the elimination of Yahya Sinwar, it is a tank shell that ultimately claimed his life after a gunfight with IDF units on the ground left him injured.
Who killed Yahya Sinwar?
It was the IDF's 828th Bislamach Brigade that engaged Sinwar and two other Hamas fighters while on patrol duty in Tal al-Sultan of Rafah on Wednesday.
While the circumstances in which the encounter erupted remain unclear, the three Hamas reportedly fighters tried to evade their rivals by running from building to building. As the Bislamach Brigade closed in, they tried to split up as a last resort, BBC said in a report. However, all three were spotted and eventually eliminated.
The drone and a tank
It was after they split up that a man who hid his face with a scarf was found resting on a sofa inside a building by an Israeli drone. The visibly tired man tried to throw a stick at the approaching drone, a video released by IDF showed. After the target was found to be alive, a tank fired at the building, killing him. However, it was not many hours later that the IDF confirmed the man who breathed his last on the sofa was the Hamas political chief.
WATCH | Slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's last footage shows him throwing stick at a drone
DNA test confirms identity
It was on Thursday that the Israeli soldiers revisited the area to check on the dead bodies. As the inspection progressed, IDF found out that one of the dead men had a few similarities with the inputs they had on Sinwar, the BBC said. They took a part of the dead man's finger and sent it to Israel for DNA matching.
As the testing progressed, the building was checked for booby traps and the body was recovered by the IDF. As the DNA samples recovered from a spot where Sinwar's presence was confirmed before matched with that of the dead body, IDF confirmed his identity.
Sinwar is often protected by several Hamas fighters. The group also used Israeli hostages as human shields for their leader. However, when the decisive encounter broke out on Wednesday, there were no hostages near him and his bodyguards were limited to two. These circumstances led to the 828th Bislamach Brigade engaging him like any other Hamas fighter.