Now Sinwar is dead, killed Wednesday in a firefight with Israeli troops who unexpectedly encountered him in southern Gaza. The troops, backed by drones, came upon a small group of Hamas fighters and brought down part of a building where they had taken cover. The Israeli troops found Sinwar’s body in the rubble.

The U.S. State Department says there's now a "path forward" for a cease-fire after the main obstacle, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, was killed.

For more than a year, Israeli military and intelligence forces have been searching every inch of Gaza for the man believed to be the architect of the October 7 attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel,