Israel said Thursday its forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza operation, dealing a massive blow to the group it has been fighting since the October 7, 2023 attack.“The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was eliminated... by [Israeli military] soldiers,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page.The military later confirmed that “after a year-long pursuit,” soldiers “eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip” on Wednesday.Hamas has not confirmed his death.Israel accuses Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, and had been hunting him down since the start of the Gaza war.He rose through the ranks of the Palestinian militant group to become first its leader in Gaza, then its overall head after the killing in July of political