Photo credit: IDF

Another video shows ground forces operating in the area where Yahya Sinwar was eliminated. After the “success” of the operation, Major General Yaron Finkelman, commanding officer of the Israeli Army's Southern Command, addressed the troops and said: “The persistence, patience and terrain analysis… and the establishment of contact and you shot at them.”.. is a matter that is very significant.”

Israeli troops found a body similar to that of Yahya Sinwar, CNN reported. They cut off his finger to obtain DNA confirmation with a profile that troops had when Sinwar was in Israeli prison for two decades until he was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal.

Videos of Israeli troops searching the hideout appeared on social media. One of the videos reviewed by NDTV shows two Israeli soldiers standing next to a body (allegedly that of Yahya Sinwar) whose left index finger has been chopped off. Meanwhile, CNN said in its report that they analyzed videos that showed his left hand with all five fingers and later with one finger missing.

He told CNN that the Hamas leader suffered other injuries, including from a tank shell, but he was confident a bullet to the head killed the Hamas leader.

The IDF claims that the tank shell fired at the building eliminated the Hamas leader. The video reviewed by NDTV showed the corpse's skull fractured with facial injuries, confirming the chief pathologist's claims in the CNN report.

Yahya Sinwar was the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed over 1,200 people, leading to a year-long Israeli operation in Gaza that killed over 40,000 people, including children.

Israel vowed to expel Hamas from Gaza and has so far eliminated most of its top leaders, including its former boss Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in July.

After Sinwar's death, Israel now hopes for the return of the hostages still stuck in Gaza. Sinwar's deputy Khalil Al-Hayya, seen as a potential successor, was defiant, saying the hostages would not be returned until Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza and the war ends.