"Yahya Sinwar is dead," he said.

"He was killed in Rafah by the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces," Netanyahu said.

"While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end," he said.

Israel Thursday confirmed that its military executed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar during an operation in Gaza, whom the country accuses of being the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack, media reports said.

Country's Foreign Minister  Israel Katz posted on X: " The arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7th, was eliminated today by IDF soldiers."

Who is Yahya Sinwar?

Yahya 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. But he had managed to elude detection by possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels that Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.

Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August.

Last month, Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut besides executing many of the group's top leadership.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into Gaza. In a retaliatory action, Israel has killed more than 42,000 people, turned much of Gaza into rubble, and displaced most of its population.