In a windowless room, somewhere in the bowels of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters, Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi jabbed his index finger forward.

Israel had just assassinated the Hezbollah leader and was about to invade Lebanon when he summoned his generals and commanders to take instructions.

But pictures of the meeting released to the press showed a seemingly unrelated image in the background.

Up on a screen mounted on the wood-panelled wall are fourteen mugshots of the Hamas chain of command - most of them with a giant red cross over them to mark that they had been killed.

At the top of the chain was public enemy no 1, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, with his grey hair and salt and pepper beard. For the first time since the war began, he had a question mark over his head.

The image set off a fresh round of speculation that Israel’s most wanted, the man who planned and ordered the Oct 7 massacres, was finally dead.

A little over a week until the anniversary of the terror attacks this coming Monday, was it possible the IDF had finally got their man?