A video obtained by Israel Hayom shows Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza sitting wounded and exhausted on a couch in a house in Rafah, where he was eliminated by IDF forces on October 16, 2024. The video, filmed by soldiers from Battalion 450, is being published here for the first time, alongside an interview in which they describe how they killed the architect of the October 7 attack.
The 37-second video was filmed at the end of a pursuit, during which Battalion 450 soldiers captured Sinwar in a building that received the nickname "Red House." Sinwar was equipped with a Kalashnikov, a combat vest, and hand grenades, and was wounded in his right arm after being shot by IDF forces shortly before.
Sinwar threw two fragmentation grenades at a force commanded by Major Hod Schreibman, and immediately afterward tanks began firing at the building where he was staying. Schreibman would be killed several months later during fighting in Jabaliya, while leading his soldiers from the front.
"The tank fires, there's a lot of smoke, and then we send the drone into the house," recounts Staff Sergeant A, Schreibman's radio operator. "We identify a figure with a combat vest, hiding near a window, sitting on the floor, and starting to throw stones at the drone." The footage from this historic drone flight, the first in which Sinwar was seen, was lost forever. "We forgot to press the recording button," A admits sheepishly.
After additional tank fire on the building, the drone entered the house again. This time, the operator remembered to press the recording button. In the video from that sortie, which we are revealing for the first time, Sinwar can be seen sitting on a couch, tucked inside an alcove. He appears to be groaning in pain and completely exhausted. He doesn't attempt to shoot at the drone or throw objects at it.
After the second drone flight, forces fired more shells at the house, and then the drone was sent inside for the third time. This time, the famous video was filmed, in which Sinwar can be seen throwing a stick at the drone. A few minutes later, he was buried under the house's rubble, after additional tank fire.
Video: Last Moments of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Credit: IDF Spokespersons Unit
The mistaken narrative
Only the next day would Battalion 450 fighters discover that the terrorist they killed in the "Red House" was Yahya Sinwar. "At that moment, I was mainly thinking about the bereaved families and the hostages," says Lieutenant Colonel R, the battalion commander. "I said to myself, 'This is the planner of everything, this is evil incarnate, and we killed him.'"
Due to the circumstances of his death, a narrative took hold suggesting that Sinwar was eliminated by chance, after Battalion 450 randomly encountered him among the ruins of Rafah and killed him without even knowing who he was. This narrative, it turns out, is far from accurate.
Sinwar wasn't killed in a "fluke." True, Hamas's strongman was eliminated thanks to a fair bit of luck, but his death was the result of a determined and sophisticated hunt that invested considerable resources and included groundbreaking combat methods.
Only because of all these factors was the dramatic final scene of his life made possible, inside the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah where he ended up, and where he was forced to leave the safety of the tunnels and come above ground, becoming easy prey. "Sinwar had been on the run for a very long time," the battalion commander R puts it. "We just had the privilege of catching him during our shift."
Based on conversations with Battalion 450 fighters and additional sources in the IDF and Shin Bet, the siege on Sinwar started the moment the war broke out, through the underground pursuit after him in Khan Yunis, until his death in Rafah a year later. This is how the hunt proceeded for the man who forever changed the face of the Middle East.
