HAMAS terror boss Yahya Sinwar was taken out by a trainee squad of Israeli commandos after being left as the cowering final survivor of a gunfight.
Gaza's Bin Laden, 61, had his last humiliating moments sat slumped over in an armchair in a bombed-out building in the Strip as he feebly tried to fight off an Israeli drone with a stick.
An autopsy revealed that Sinwar was likely wiped out by a long-range gunshot to the head - executed with sniper-like precision.
His corpse was also riddled with shrapnel fragments after the house he was in was blasted by a tank.
Sinwar's body has now been transferred to a secret location inside Israel, Hebrew news site Walla reports.
His identity was confirmed last night after Israel ran DNA tests.
The October 7 mastermind had a target on his back for over a year as Israel's security service - backed by the US - spent more than a year scouring the country for him.
But Sinwar was wiped out by a unit of three trainee squad commandos after they unexpectedly stumbled across him, Israeli officials told .
The trio was conducting an operation in the Tal El Sultan area of southern Gaza on Wednesday, where they believed to be a hideout for senior Hamas leaders.
They then came upon a small number of Hamas fighters, who were spotted moving between buildings.
The soldiers, supported by drones, engaged in a gunfight, killing three Palestinian terrorists.
But Sinwar - by then still unrecognisable - managed to escape into a ruined building.
Israeli fire during the conflict partially collapsed a building where the militants had sought shelter, officials told the American paper.
They sent in a small drone in pursuit, and its camera captured a man sitting among wreckage, his face hidden by a scarf, hurling a stick at it in defiance.
They decided it was too dangerous to enter and called in tank fire instead.
Two 120mm shells impacted the building, sending shrapnel scything across the upper stories.
After the dust settled and they started looking through the building, the Israeli forces saw that one of the dead remarkably resembled the Hamas terror leader.
He was discovered by the troops armed with a flak jacket, 40,000 shekels ($10,731.63), and a firearm.
"He tried to escape and our forces eliminated him," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said during a televised briefing.
Sinwar and several of his bodyguards are said to have recently left from a neighbouring tunnel and were attempting to gather supplies for an extended stay when they were discovered by Israeli soldiers.
It felt like an odd place to find him.
Israeli and American security services had long concluded that Sinwar, fearing for his own life, had been tunnelling beneath the surface and surrounding himself with Israeli hostages in order to avoid being killed.
Astonishing drone footage captured the terror leader's humiliating final stand before Israeli troops killed him.
And photographs obtained by The New York Times, some of which later appeared online, show the body of a man bearing a strong resemblance to Yahya Sinwar.
The man’s body had several severe wounds, including to the head and leg.
The images revealed several features consistent with Sinwar’s appearance in archival footage, such as distinctive moles near his eyes and crooked teeth.
Hours after the fighting ended, soldiers cautiously approached the bodies, aware that the area was still scattered with explosives, according to the officials.
They also suspected that the body later identified as Sinwar might be booby-trapped.
One official, who shared photos from the scene, said the soldiers found money and weapons alongside the Hamas terrorists.
Some of the images showed these items on display.
The troops were also concerned about the possibility of hostages being in the area, but none were found among the fighters, according to one official.
The Israeli military said there was no evidence that any hostages still held in Gaza were harmed during the battle.
On Thursday evening, after completing the identification process, the Israeli military confirmed Sinwar’s long-awaited death.
Sources in the IDF also say that Mohammed will take over as Hamas Chief-of-Staff as the terror group confirmed Yahya's death.
The Pentagon said American forces had no role in Sinwar's killing.
Spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said: "This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved".
He said the US had contributed intelligence relating "to hostage recovery and the tracking and locating of Hamas leaders who have been responsible for holding hostages. And so certainly that contributes in general to the picture".
By Nick Parker, Foreign Editor
HIS life was saved twice by Israel – but the monster dubbed “The Hamas Bin Laden” repaid his sworn enemy by masterminding the October 7 horror.
Yahya Sinwar, 61, spent 22 years in an Israeli prison for terrorist murder and kidnap plots and spent every second honing his burning hatred for his captors.
His astonishing rise to the top of the Hamas terror tree came despite being sentenced to four life sentences in 1989 for planning the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians he suspected of working with Israel.
The bearded beast’s life was first saved when he was cured of cancer by an operation in a prison.
Then in 2011 he was freed, among 1,026 others, in a prisoner exchange for a single Israeli soldier in a deal that has been damned by his thousands of victims ever since.
Sinwar taught himself Hebrew and became fluent during his multiple stints as a caged man.
He began reading and studying every Israeli newspaper to probe the weak spots in his enemy’s armour.
The terror master’s deep knowledge of what makes Israelis tick led him to realise the power of the hostage-taking tactic now traumatising the strife-torn Jewish nation.
Yet despite his blood lust and bravado, the Hamas commander “cried like a baby” when he learned he had cancer, his jailer Lieutenant Betty Lahat has revealed.
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