Israel’s foreign minister has confirmed that Israeli troops in Gaza have killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war.

Here’s what to know:

• Who is Yahya Sinwar? Sinwar became the head of Hamas after the killing of the previous leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Iran in July that was widely blamed on Israel. He was an architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
• Sinwar’s rise to power: Sinwar was an early member of Hamas, which was formed in 1987. He was among more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an exchange for an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid.
• Where would this leave Hamas? It’s unclear who would replace Sinwar, and what that might mean for the cease-fire efforts, which sputtered to a halt in August after months of negotiations brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

Lebanon says death toll in conflict with Israel has surpassed 2,400

Lebanon’s crisis response unit says 45 people were killed and 179 wounded in the past 24 hours.

The new numbers announced Thursday raises the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,412 killed and 11,285 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The crisis response unit report also recorded 96 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

Some 1,096 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are currently sheltering 190,882 people, including 44,121 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report says.

Among these shelters, 900 are full. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the U.N. children’s agency.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education has reported that 77% of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.

People continue to flow across the Lebanon-Syria border. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 17, Lebanese General Security has recorded 333,893 Syrian citizens and 132,074 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syria, the report said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has “settled its account” with “the person who carried out the worst massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust.”

Netanyahu addressed the families of the hostages Thursday saying it was an “important moment in the war” to bring home the hostages. He also said anyone who surrendered weapons and assisted with the return of the hostages would be allowed to leave Gaza safely.

Still, he added, “our war has not yet ended.”

International Criminal Court says it is aware of reports of Sinwar’s death

The prosecution office of the Hague International Criminal Court, which in May requested an arrest warrant for Sinwar for his role in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, says it is “aware of the reports” of his death.

In a written response to questions from AP, the office said Thursday that, “In line with standard practice, the Office will take relevant action if sufficient information is received confirming his death.”

If his death is confirmed, the office will withdraw its application for the warrant.

Israeli soldiers were not specifically searching for Sinwar when he was killed

Sinwar was killed in Rafah after an Israeli tank launched a shell at a building, causing it to collapse. The soldiers were on a regular patrol in Gaza when they encountered a number of Hamas militants. They were not specifically searching for Sinwar.

Photos of Sinwar published by Israeli media show a man wearing a bulletproof vest, surrounded by grenades, lying in the rubble of a building with a head wound. He was not surrounded by hostages or using them as human shields when he was killed.

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said Sinwar’s killing sends “a clear message to the residents of Gaza. The man who brought disaster and death to the Gaza strip, the man who made you suffer as a result of his murderous actions — the end of this man has come.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has condemned Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, who Israel says has been killed by Israeli troops in Gaza.

At a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskky in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte told reporters that Sinwar “is widely recognized as the architect of the Oct. 7th, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel. I have condemned them, all allies have condemned them. Every reasonable soul in the world has condemned them. So if he has died, I personally will not miss him.”

Israel’s foreign minister has confirmed that Israeli troops in Gaza have killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack.

Sinwar has 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.

Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing Wednesday a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.”

“The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza – without Hamas and without Iranian control,” he said in a statement Thursday.

JUST IN: Israel’s foreign minister confirms that Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in GazaShare

US sanctions people and entities allegedly tied to a Houthi and Iranian financial facilitator

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on 18 companies, people and ships across Panama, the Marshall Islands, India and more for their alleged ties to sanctioned Houthi and Iranian financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal.

Captains of vessels transporting sanctioned Iranian oil and companies that managed and operated the ships that transported the oil have also been also sanctioned. The Treasury said Thursday that revenue from al-Jamal’s network enables Houthi attacks in the region.

Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith says his agency “remains committed to utilizing all available tools to disrupt this key source of illicit revenue that enables the Houthis’ destabilizing activities.”

Palestinian officials say death toll in Gaza school strike rises to 28

Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering has risen to 28.

The Israeli military said the strike on Thursday targeted dozens of militants who were meeting inside the school in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.

Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency unit in the north, said the death toll had climbed to 28, with another 98 people wounded.

Israel has been waging a large military operation in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war, for more than a week now. It has once again called on all residents of northern Gaza to flee south, and it allowed no food aid to enter the north for around two weeks at the start of the month.

Its forces have repeatedly returned to Jabaliya and other areas of Gaza after saying that militants had regrouped there.

What to know about Thursday’s strike on a Gaza school-turned-shelter that killed at least 15

An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in northern Gaza earlier Thursday killed at least 15 people, including five children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had gathered at the school.

The strike hit the Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza where Israel has been waging a major air and ground operation for more than a week.

▶ Read more about the strike

Who is Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar?

Sinwar’s death, which has not yet been confirmed, would be a significant moment in Israel’s yearlong offensive against the militant group and could complicate efforts to release dozens of hostages held in Gaza.

Sinwar became the head of Hamas after the killing of the previous leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Iran in July that was widely blamed on Israel.

He was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in the Gaza town of Khan Younis. He was an early member of Hamas, which was formed in 1987. He eventually led the group’s security arm, which worked to purge it of informants for Israel.

▶ Read more about Yahya Sinwar

U.S. officials are in close contact with Israel about the investigation

President Joe Biden has been briefed on Israel’s investigation into whether it killed Sinwar, and U.S. officials have been in close contact with Israeli officials throughout Thursday morning, according to a senior administration official.

Israel is DNA-testing a body from Gaza to see if it’s Hamas’ top leader Sinwar, an official says

The Israeli military said Thursday it was looking into whether Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in a military operation in Gaza. Authorities were conducting DNA tests on a body to determine if it is him, an Israeli security official said.

The military said in a statement that three militants were killed during operations in Gaza, without specifying where or elaborating further. It said the identities of the three were so far not confirmed, but it was “checking the possibility” that one of them was Sinwar.

The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the tests on the body had not yet confirmed if it was Sinwar’s.

There was no immediate comment by Hamas on the report.

▶ Read more about Israel’s investigation