“We mourn the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim,” Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in a recorded video statement broadcast by Al Jazeera.

Sinwar became Israel’s most wanted man after the Oct 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.

In his statement, Hayya said Hamas would not release the hostages it seized from Israel during the attack until the war in Gaza ends.

The hostages “will not return…unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops,” the senior Hamas official said, as he called on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Hayya said the group would take strength from Sinwar’s killing, which he said has set him among “the leaders and symbols of the movement who preceded him”.