JERUSALEM/GAZA - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) jointly confirmed Thursday that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.

"IDF soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar... in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip," the Israeli army said in a statement.

The IDF said that its soldiers killed three militants in the operation, and later, it turned out that one of them was Sinwar, who "was responsible for the murder and abduction of many Israelis."

According to the statement, Sinwar was killed after hiding over the past year behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground, in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

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"The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Sinwar's operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination," the statement added.

Shortly before the IDF statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz confirmed Sinwar's death in a message to foreign ministers of other countries, saying that "this is a great military and moral achievement for Israel."

According to the foreign minister, "the elimination of Sinwar creates a possibility for the immediate release of the Israeli abductees and to bring about a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza, without Hamas nor Iranian control."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday following the Israeli military's claim of the killing of Sinwar that Hamas will no longer rule Gaza.

"The person who committed the most terrible massacre in the history of our nation since the Holocaust was eliminated today," Netanyahu said in a video statement. "Hamas will no longer rule Gaza."

Addressing those who hold the Israeli hostages in Gaza, he said that "whoever lays down his arms and returns them, we will allow him to leave and live, and whoever harms them, his blood be on his own head."

Netanyahu also called on the peoples of the region to "stop the axis of evil and create a different future of peace and prosperity in the entire region."

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on social media platform X that "the elimination of Sinwar is a clear message to the families of the fallen soldiers and the abductees that we are doing everything and will continue to do it."

Hamas has not confirmed Sinwar's death. 

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Considered the chief architect of the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct 7, 2023, Sinwar was appointed as Hamas leader in August following the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Sinwar was born in October 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. He had been jailed in Israeli prison multiple times before his final release in 2011.

After his release, Sinwar was elected to Hamas's political bureau during the movement's internal elections in 2012, where he took charge of security matters. In 2013, he assumed leadership of Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, coordinating efforts between the political bureau and the brigades' leadership.

He was elected in 2017 as the head of the movement's political bureau in Gaza, and in 2021, he was re-elected for a second four-year term during the movement's internal elections.