“His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front” against Israel, “but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar”, Khamenei said.

The Palestinian Islamist movement “Hamas is alive and will remain alive”, he said in a statement.

Sinwar “was the shining figure of resistance and struggle”, Khamenei said in his first remarks on Sinwar — seen as the mastermind of the Oct 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that sparked the Gaza war — since he was killed on Wednesday.

“He stood with unwavering determination against the cruel and aggressive enemy and slapped them with tact and courage,” he added.

“He left behind the irreparable blow of Oct 7, 2023 as his legacy in the history of this region, and then he soared with honour and pride to the ascension of the martyrs.”

Iran does not recognise Israel, its sworn enemy, and has made its support for the Palestinian cause one of the pillars of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Sinwar, long a man in the shadows, took over as head of Hamas after the killing in July of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in the Iranian capital Tehran.

The killing has been widely blamed on Israel, which has never claimed responsibility.