New details

Hamas chief Sinwar died from a shot to the head

The Yemeni Houthi militia is also mourning the death of Yahya Sinwar.(Bild: APA/AP)

On Thursday, the Israeli army published the last moments of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's life that were captured by a drone in the Gaza Strip (see video above). Now further details have emerged. A senior forensic expert explained that the leader of the Palestinian militia had been shot in the head.

"The cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head," the senior pathologist at the National Center for Forensics in Tel Aviv, Chen Kugel, told the US television station CNN on Saturday. Shortly before the fatal shooting of arguably the most wanted terrorist in the Middle East, Israeli soldiers had observed three men moving from building to building in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Wednesday, The New York Times newspaper reported. After a firefight in which an Israeli soldier was seriously wounded, one of the men fled into a neighboring house.

The masked and injured Hamas leader was located in this partially destroyed house and was eliminated shortly afterwards.(Bild: kameraOne (Screenshot))

The Israeli military then piloted a drone into the building and discovered a hooded man covered in dust on a sofa, who threw a stick at the remote-controlled aircraft. A sniper then shot him in the head and an Israeli tank fired on the building, reported the New York Times. As a result, the terror chief suffered further serious injuries. For fear of booby traps, the troops did not advance into the house until after sunrise the following day. There they finally found a body that strongly resembled Sinwar.

Fingers cut off to check DNA
The pathologist explained that one of the dead man's fingers had been cut off in order to establish his identity by means of a DNA test. "After the laboratory had created a genetic profile, we compared it with the profile we still had of Sinwar from his time as a prisoner. We were then able to identify him from his DNA."

According to media reports, Sinwar's body is in a secret location in Israel. His mortal remains could be used as "bargaining chips" in talks about the release of hostages held by Hamas, CNN reported, citing Israeli diplomatic circles.

Sinwar's bodyguard also killed
The Hamas leader's bodyguard, Mahmoud Hamdan, was also killed in the course of the fighting. The commander of the Hamas battalion in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan district died just 200 meters away from where Sinwar lost his life. Hamdan had also been responsible for guarding the six Israeli hostages who were murdered by his men in August.