Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who masterminded the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, may have been killed, according to the Israeli military.

A statement released on Thursday afternoon said: “During Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated.

The IDF [is] checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed.”

“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”

Several security officials, speaking anonymously, told Israeli media that the bodies had been taken to Israel for DNA tests, and that the IDF assesses “with high probability” that one of those killed was Sinwar.

Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies were found with lots of cash and fake IDs.

Israel's Army Radio said the incident had occurred during a ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.

It said visual evidence suggested it was likely that one of the men was Sinwar and DNA tests were being conducted. Israel has samples of Sinwar's DNA from his period in an Israeli jail.

Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel's wanted list ever since.

Sinwar, 61, was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza.

Among his childhood friends were Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military chief, whom Israel claimed to have killed in an airstrike three months ago, and Mohammed Dahlan, an influential member of the secular Fatah party now living in exile in the UAE.

He joined Hamas at an early age, spending much of his youth in and out of Israeli prison. He rose through the ranks as an infamous enforcer, in charge of finding and killing suspected Palestinian collaborators with Israel.

In 1989, he was sentenced to four life sentences for the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he suspected of collaboration. He served 22 years before being released in the 2011 prisoner exchange in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was returned for 1,000 Palestinians.

He was elected by other Hamas members in a secret ballot as Hamas’s chief in Gaza in 2017, surviving several Israeli assassination attempts.