Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the IDF said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israel’s most-wanted man.

Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores just over a year after Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. They also presented it as a turning point in the campaign to destroy Hamas, urging the group to surrender and release some 100 hostages still in Gaza.

“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the start of the day after Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

President Joe Biden said Sinwar’s death opens the way for “a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Sinwar has been Hamas’ leader inside the Gaza Strip for years. He was elevated to the group’s top leadership position in July after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

In the past months, Israel has eliminated a string of senior figures from Hamas and Hezbollah with airstrikes. Israel has claimed to have killed the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, but the group has said he survived.

But in Sinwar’s case, troops found him by chance.

Israel military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Israeli forces identified three Hamas militants running from building to building in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah. The troops attempted to shoot them before they ran inside a building.

The Israeli military released drone video showing Sinwar’s last moments: In a room wrecked by shelling, a man sat in a chair, his face covered with a cloth, possibly to hide his identity. The video showed the man, with one wounded hand, throwing a stick at the drone.

The military then fired an additional shell at the building, causing it to collapse and killing Sinwar, Hagari said. He said Sinwar was found with a bulletproof vest, grenades, and 40,000 shekels ($10,707).

Some of Sinwar’s DNA had previously been found in tunnels near where troops found the bodies of six hostages at the end of August, Hagari said. The military believes weeks of searches in the area had pushed Sinwar to come out of hiding, he said.

Netanyahu said Israel had “settled its account” with the man behind the Oct. 7 attack, and that “evil has suffered a heavy blow.” But, he added, “the task before us is not yet complete.”

(AP)