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By James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel confirmed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year, has been killed in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz calling it a "victory for the entire free world".
There has been no official comment from Hamas but sources in the group said the indications suggested that Sinwar had been killed during an Israeli operation in the area of Tal El Sultan, in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military confirmed in a post on X that Sinwar was dead.
"Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers," Katz said in a written statement from his office.
"This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the axis of evil of radical Islam led by Iran."
His death represents a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.
Earlier Israeli police examined dental and DNA evidence to determine if Sinwar, Israel's top target, had been killed.
The military said earlier it was checking the possibility that Sinwar was among three militants killed during an operation in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website that usually publishes about security issues, urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself and not Israeli media outlets, which it said aimed to break their spirit.
Israeli media reported that the operation was a routine raid that caught Sinwar by chance. The military said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building.
(Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Tala Ramadan in Dubai, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean, Sharon Singleton)
