Israel's foreign minister has confirmed that Israeli troops in Gaza have killed Hamas's top leader Yahya Sinwar
Sinwar joined Hamas in the early 1980s and has been the head of its military wing since 2017.
He is believed to be the architect of the 7 October attacks which saw Hamas terrorists slaughter more than 1,200 people in Israel, triggering the current conflict in Gaza.
Foreign minister Israel Katz called Mr Sinwar's killing a "military and moral achievement for the Israeli army".
"The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza - without Hamas and without Iranian control," he said in a statement.
The Israel Defence Forces earlier said they were checking if they had killed him.
They said in a statement: “During IDF operations in Gaza, three terrorists were eliminated.
“The IDF and ISA (Israel Securities Authority) are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed.”
Members of Israel's security cabinet have been informed that he is “very likely dead”, two officials with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Two of Israel's broadcasters, KAN and N12 News also cited Israeli officials as saying Sinwar was dead.
The IDF said there were no signs that hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.
Sinwar was named leader of Hamas following the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran in July.
Israel has killed several commanders of Hamas in Gaza as well as senior figures of Hezbollah in Lebanon, including its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah, dealing heavy blows to its arch-foes.
Hamas has not commented on the fate of Sinwar.
Confirmation of his death would dial up tensions in the Middle East where fears of a wider conflict have grown as Israel plans its response to the missile attack carried out by Iran on October 1, 2024, after Israeli airstrikes on Iranian-allied militants.
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Israel earlier on Thursday against attacking the Islamic Republic.
“We tell you (Israel) that if you commit any aggression against any point we will painfully attack the same point of yours,” Hossein Salami said in a televised speech, adding that Iran can penetrate Israel’s defences.
There has been speculation that Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, as it has long threatened to do and other options include attacks on its vital oil sites.
Sky News Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said photographs purporting to show Sinwar’s body had been circulating.
He said Sinwar’s death would be a “very, very significant moment in the war”.
“I think it will have significant consequences. You have two aspects to it. Firstly, there’s fighting on the ground itself between Israeli forces and what remains of Hamas in Gaza still on a daily basis.
“Currently it is mainly focused on northern Gaza.
“You would assume that if Sinwar is confirmed to have been killed, given that some many other senior commanders have been killed over recent months, that what me might see is a collapse of any remaining Hamas resistance in Gaza.
