People are reflected in a window displaying a poster of then-newly appointed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Palestinian Bourj al-Barajneh camp on August 8, 2024 in Beirut, Lebanon.

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People are reflected in a window displaying a poster of then-newly appointed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Palestinian Bourj al-Barajneh camp on August 8, 2024 in Beirut, Lebanon.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and the man believed to be behind the October 7 attacks against Israel, has died.

Israeli officials announced Thursday that he was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Sinwar was Israel's most wanted man in Gaza.

NPR's Daniel Estrin reported live from Tel Aviv today and explained the situation in more detail:

“He is in charge in this war, he agreed to a hostage release deal in November, and he was the man that Israel had hoped would agree to a ceasefire agreement, Israel and many around the world. He was the man.”

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Sinwar's legacy

Since the start of the war, Sinwar had evaded capture, possibly in the labyrinth of tunnels Hamas had built under Gaza. He was considered a hardliner within Hamas and was less likely to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

David Remnick introduced the Hamas leader The New Yorker Earlier this year. He spoke to NPR about Sinwar's ideology – laid out in a semi-autobiographical novel that Sinwar wrote during his time in an Israeli prison.

“It certainly has nothing to do with the two-state solution. It is based on the absolute conviction that there can be no Israeli state and no compromise,” Remnick said.

Israel killed both Sinwar's predecessor and the head of Hamas's military wing, leaving Sinwar as the militant group's leading figure.

A look into the future

In a statement released Thursday, President Biden called the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “a good day for Israel, for the United States and for the world.”
To explain the larger impact of Sinwar's death on Hamas, the region, and the war with Israel, All in all Host Juana Summers spoke with Daniel Byman, a professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank.

“It’s a victory (for Israel),” Byman said. “Since the beginning of the war they have been propagating the idea that he is a dead man walking. And Israeli leaders can say to their own people, 'We have now killed the chief architect of October 7 for Hamas.' He was a hardliner, and replacing him with someone more pragmatic or moderate could also make Hamas more willing to compromise. But in the past, the killings of key leaders have not led to progress on the ceasefire. And both sides seem pretty entrenched at the moment.

Sinwar's death comes weeks after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was also killed by Israel. So what could be next for the militant groups after several prominent leaders were killed?

“It is unclear who the next leader of Hamas will be,” Byman said.

“Israel has removed much of the leadership, making it difficult to determine the natural succession. So it will be a real challenge for Hamas to have a leader who has credibility within the movement, and from there to gain the credibility, to be able to make big concessions and to try in other ways to go beyond the current one to get out of the conflict.

But a ceasefire still seems a long way off.

“To make a big leap, such as a ceasefire, that would endanger (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's) political coalition. That leaves an uncertain question about the domestic investigation into the Oct. 7 attack in Israel. That would be a big jump. And until now.” At least he was very reluctant to do that.

This episode was produced by Marc Rivers and Erika Ryan. It was edited by Jeanette Woods, Timbete Ermyas and James Hider. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.