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IDF
A drone slips through a glassless window of the second floor of a battle-scarred building.
Through the dust cloud whipped up by its propellers, its IDF operators spied a lone man, his face covered, sitting hunched on an armchair.
It is an injured Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader and the mastermind of the Oct 7 massacre, clutching a stick in his left hand.
Brandishing his makeshift weapon at the drone, Sinwar limply tosses it towards the hovering device, as if he was resigned to fate that he was about to die.
Moments later an Israeli Merkeva tank fired at the mysterious figure, its soldiers unaware it was Sinwar, Israel’s most wanted man.
He was one of three terrorist assailants spotted darting between buildings in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighbourhood.
Two pressed ahead, as if they were clearing a path for the third man following from behind.
A tank opened fire, forcing the trio to split up.
One clambered up to the second floor of a building to seek refuge from his hunters.
Body found with Mentos mints
Israeli soldiers attempted to enter the structure, but withdrew after the lone terrorist hurled two grenades in their direction.
That was when they sent the drone to search the building, before opening fire on it again.
It was not until the building was searched again by IDF troops that they discovered the man with a covered face and injured arm was the leader of Hamas.
Sinwar’s lifeless, rubble-covered corpse was found with a selection of Mentos mints, weapons, cash and fake identification cards.
It was recovered and taken back to Israel for DNA and dental tests to confirm that Israel had got its man.
The IDF had been hunting the man who planned the Oct 7 terror attack for over a year.
He was believed to have been hiding in Hamas’s tunnel network deep under Gaza.
Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s spokesman, said Sinwar was probably attempting “to escape to the north, to safer areas” while Israeli troops closed in on him.
