Arm Smashed, Finger Chopped: Yahya Sinwar's Autopsy Reveals Chilling Details

New Delhi: Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year's attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was the man Israel had hunted for more than a year. 

Sinwar had topped Israel's most wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war just over a year ago, and his killing strikes a powerful blow to the militant group. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death. The military confirmed Sinwar's death after conducting DNA tests on a body it said was among three militants killed Wednesday during operations in Gaza.

Yahya Sinwar’s autopsy reveals chilling details

Dr. Chen Kugel, director of Israel's National Forensic Institute, shared key findings from the autopsy of Sinwar in an interview with the New York Times. Kugel confirmed that Sinwar was ultimately killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Prior to this, he had sustained severe injuries from shrapnel, likely from a missile or tank shell, which critically damaged his arm.

Kugel explained that Sinwar had tried to control the heavy bleeding by improvising a tourniquet using an electrical cord. However, this attempt was in vain. “It wouldn’t have worked in any case,” Kugel noted, pointing out that Sinwar's forearm had been shattered. 

According to a CNN report, Israeli troops took an unconventional step to confirm the death of Yahya Sinwar. After entering the hideout and discovering a body that resembled Sinwar, they severed one of his fingers to obtain DNA confirmation. This was cross-checked with a DNA profile that Israeli authorities had on file from Sinwar’s time in prison, where he had been held for nearly two decades before his release in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap deal.

Sinwar was imprisoned by Israel from the late 1980s until 2011, and during that time he underwent treatment for brain cancer – leaving Israeli authorities with extensive medical records.  Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar's killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army,” saying it would “create the possibility to immediately release the hostages”.

Impact of Sinwar's Death on Israel-Gaza War?

Sinwar's death has little immediate impact on Hamas. Killing Sinwar marked a major symbolic victory for Israel in its yearlong war against Hamas in Gaza. But it has also allowed Hamas to claim him as a hero who was killed in the battlefield, not hiding in a tunnel.

While the group is on the defensive and has been largely forced underground in Gaza, it continues to fight Israeli forces in the enclave and to exert political influence. Bassem Naim, a Qatar-based member of the group's political bureau, said in a statement that Israel had killed other Hamas leaders, including its founding leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who were killed by airstrikes in 2004. “Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations,” he said.

The impact of Sinwar's death on military operations in Gaza remains to be seen. But Sadeq Abu Amer, head of the Turkey-based think tank Palestinian Dialogue Group, said that “there will be no significant impact on the political structure of Hamas." When Sinwar was appointed, “the situation was basically arranged so that Hamas could manage its political affairs and manage the organization independently of Sinwar” because of the difficulties of communication between Sinwar and Hamas' political leaders outside of Gaza, he said.