Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, is dead at 61 WSOC TV [Video]

BEIRUT — (AP) — Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the longest, deadliest and most destructive war in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. He was 61.

In Gaza, no figure loomed larger in determining the war’s trajectory than Sinwar. Obsessive, disciplined and dictatorial, he was a rarely seen veteran militant who learned Hebrew over years spent in Israeli prisons and who carefully studied his enemy. He worked on bringing Hamas closer to the Iran-led alliance after it moved away following the start of Syria’s conflict in 2011.

His death came in what appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday. Israel declared Thursday that the troops had killed him. A top Hamas political official confirmed the death Friday.

The secretive figure feared on both sides of the battle lines engineered the surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel, along with the even …