TEL AVIV — Late afternoon on Thursday, in the midst of a quiet holiday in Israel, a shock jolted the country.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect behind the October 7 massacre — who also destroyed the lives of 2.5-million Palestinians — was dead. Covered in dirt. In a building where he and two other terrorists had been killed following a firefight with the Israel Defence Forces on Wednesday. There had been a firefight. When the three terrorists realized that the IDF was closing in, they split up.