Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country had "settled its account" with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after IDF forces killed him in the Gaza Strip.Netanyahu said Sinwar, regarded as the mastermind of the October 7th attack, was “the person who carried out the worst massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust".
He said his death on Wednesday was an "important moment in the war" to bring home the hostages being held in Gaza, adding anyone who surrendered weapons and assisted with the return of the hostages would be allowed to leave Gaza safely.
But he added: “our war has not yet ended.”
"Today evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not yet complete," he said.Sinwar, who was named as Hamas' overall leader following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, was believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels the terror group built under Gaza over the past two decades.
His death could dial up hostilities in the Middle East where the prospect of an even wider conflict has grown. Israel has launched a ground campaign in Lebanon over the past month and is now planning a response to an October 1 missile attack carried out by Iran, ally of Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
But the demise of the man who planned the attack last year in which fighters killed 1,200 people in Israel and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, could also help push forward stalled efforts to end the war in which Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel's Army Radio said the killing occurred during a ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.
It said visual evidence suggested it was likely one of the men was Sinwar. The corpse was taken away for DNA tests and checking of dental records - Israel has samples of Sinwar's DNA from time he spent in an Israeli jail.
A ruthless enforcer once tasked with punishing Palestinians suspected of informing for Israel, Sinwar made his name as a prison leader.
He emerged as a street hero from a 22-year Israeli sentence for masterminding the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians. He then quickly rose to the top of the Hamas ranks.
US president Joe Biden said the killing of Sinwar by Israeli troops was a "good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world".
Mr Biden compared it to the feeling in the US after the killing of al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001.
The president said the killing of the mastermind of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year "proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes".
He said he will speak with Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them "and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all".
US vice president Kamala Harris said the killing of the Hamas leader "gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza".
Speaking from a campaign stop in Wisconsin, she said the war "must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination".
"It is time for the day after to begin," she added.
