Israeli Military Drone Footage Claims to Show Sinwar Shortly Before He Was Killed

Israeli Military Drone Footage Claims to Show Sinwar Shortly Before He Was Killed

The video shows a room that matches photographs obtained by The Times that show the corpse of a man closely resembling the Hamas leader.

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By Aric Toler and Christiaan Triebert

The Israeli military released a video on Thursday showing a drone flying into a building in Rafah, where a man the video identifies as Yahya Sinwar is sitting on a chair. The Israeli military described the video as showing Mr. Sinwar “moments before his elimination.”

While the video has been edited, it is clear that the man, who is covered in dust, watches the drone for at least 20 seconds before throwing an object, possibly a stick, at the drone. The Times could not independently verify the identity of the man.

The room seen in the drone video matches the location of earlier photographs obtained by The New York Times showing the corpse of a man closely resembling Mr. Sinwar. There is new damage to a wall of the room visible in the photographs, which indicates that an explosion occurred at some point after the drone footage. Also in the photos, the corpse is wearing a green kaffiyeh similar to the one worn by the man in the video.

The room is on the second floor of a residential building in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah in southern Gaza. Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military released several videos of Israeli soldiers in the area after Mr. Sinwar was killed. The Times determined this footage was filmed near the same house in northern Rafah.

Israel’s military has recently expanded its operations in this neighborhood of Rafah. A video filmed in September showed soldiers going on a patrol in Rafah from a nearby military position. In the clip, the soldiers drive by the house in which Mr. Sinwar was later killed, although it is not clear whether he was in the building at the time the footage was filmed.

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