actually come out and say that there is a possibility that they have killed yahya sinwar. i'm told that they are still working to confirm whether or not this body that they believe may be his, whether or not it is actually him. but if so, of course, that would be an enormous blow to hamas an enormous development in this war that has stretched for over a year. now, john, let's read, let's just read the full statement that we have so far, which again, limited. >> but critical, we can put it up for everyone. this is the statement coming from from the idf of what we're talking about during idf operations in the gaza strip three terrorists were eliminated. the idf and isa are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was ya-ya sinwar at this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed in the building where the terrorists were eliminated this goes on to say there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. the forces that are operating in the area are continuing to

operate with the required caution one thing we know is just how american officials have talked about yaya sinwar his role in jeremy in the in the hostage and ceasefire negotiations. and i was just looking back. i mean, tony blinken saying very clearly that yahya sinwar has been and remains the primary decider. when it comes to concluding the ceasefire. and again, you're getting at what that's adds to one of the reasons why this could be so significant and just how tony blinken and multiple us officials have put this at the feet of yahya sinwar for so long mean, sinwar is just an enormous presence in gaza. >> he was feared in gaza long before he even came. hamas's leader in 2017 because he was in charge of the unit that effectively went after people who they viewed as potential collaborators with the israeli government. he's a very feared

figure within the gaza strip and that has been part of his power inside of gaza. and beyond that, he has of course, been intimately involved in hamas's military and its terrorist operations. and of course, he is one of the last senior leaders of hamas who still remains alive. we saw that the israeli military has taken out muhammad deif the head of the al al-qassam brigades, hamas's military wing. and that left yahya sinwar, of course, not only in charge of hamas's political branch following the the assassination of ismail haniyeh, but also very much in charge of hamas's military operations as this war has stretched now is now entering its second year and sinwar beyond the fact that of course he is reviled by israelis for his role in october 7, for his role in multiple other attacks against israeli civilians and soldiers. he has also increasingly taken, drawn anger from palestinian civilians in gaza as well. i have increasingly seen in the scenes

following bombings in gaza following the deaths of people in gaza as a result of israeli military strike it's people expressing anger not only with the israeli military, the israeli government, but also cursing sinwar himself. and that reflects the fact that of course he has been hiding in tunnels, or at least that was the understanding that was the belief over the course of the last year, while enormous suffering was happening above-ground. and of course, over the course of the last year, he has refused to surrender his weapons, despite the fact that the israeli military has clearly devastated not only hamas, but of course, the gaza strip and so his death will have enormous implications for hamas's hold on power in gaza, for it the continuation of its military operations against the israeli military in gaza. and it could also of course have enormous implications for those ceasefire negotiations which he were also referencing we know that sinwar in the past has

been one of the more hardline figures within hamas that's why there was so much concern following the death. the assassination of a smile haniah, that perhaps now with sinwar in charge, they would take an even harder line. we know of course that the israeli government itself has also been an obstacle two, moving those ceasefire negotiations forward. sinwar is certainly not the only player in these talks, but his death, if indeed it is confirmed, it will send shockwaves throughout this region and it will have enormous implications for the hostages, for civilians in gaza. and of course, for the future of this war i want to now bring in cedric leighton. >> thank you so much, jeremy, stick with us. obviously, there's so much more to discuss here. he is with us, i think on the phone. is that correct, cedric? i know, but there you are. i see alive cedric. >> i want to ask you about something that we are we are hearing how will the idf go about trying to determine whether or not this is yahya

sinwar. >> we know that he was in in israeli prison for 22 years. they do have his dna. is that what they're going to be using going forward to try to figure out if this is him. there are of course, pictures and videos that are surfacing as well. >> yes, absolutely. sara. so what the israelis are going to do is they're going to do a forensic examination. is it's kind of like what a coroner would be doing in a murder case and they will take a look the ampa dna, like you mentioned from his prison time in israel, they will also have some other patterns of life, proof-of-life type things and if there's proof of life is lacking, in other words, there's no movement, no notifications indicating that he is alive. all of those things are going to become a critical component of their assessment and when the israelis are certain, especially if they have the forensic evidence and naturally if they have the ball that is then going to make it possible

for them to determine whether or not in fact yahya sinwar has been killed at this particular juncture again, we continue to monitor this news and you'll see us looking down at our computers and our phones because we're working our sources to try to get as much information as we can. >> the information that we're getting is that the israeli military, the idf he's investigating whether one of three, what they are calling terrorists killed inside gaza if one of those people was hamas leader yahya sinwar considered to be the mastermind of the october 7 attack. jeremy diamond if you are still with us. again, the significance. okay. we do not log. who no longer have jeremy with us and then cedric, if you are still with us and i'll put this to you from just a military strategic standpoint here is israel has killed the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah in the last several weeks to remove the leadership of hezbollah and also hamas within this short

period of time, what kind of strategic success would that be success, john? >> and basically what the police have done is a very deliberate to series of decapitation strikes not only have they done, ef0, if this is true, if they conducted a decapitation strikes like go all the way up to the top of the hamas organization, for the hezbollah organization. but they've also gone into the mid level and in gaza, it was more of a kinetic action in most cases to go after them i in the case of hezbollah, they went after them, of course, using the pagers and walkie-talkies in addition to the airstrikes. so you've got this confluence of events that's happening, john. and what's going on with the israelis as they are basically fulfilling a plan that they had developed over the years to go after all the different ai leadership

elements in these terrorists groups. they know that decapitated groups is one way to at least limit their effectiveness, because they are in many ways top-down organizations with some degree of independence in their cells but that independence in their cells means that they will lack coordination with minus a senior leader like yahya sinwar. so this is very significant if it turns out to be true, it will be another move in the israeli direction to basically try to eliminate the threat as much as they can and that is in essence what this plan was to decapitate to these various organizations and make them far less effective when it comes to attacking israel yes. >> i mean, i think we need to reiterate just how big this would be if yahya sinwar, the head of hamas has been killed. now, we do not know if that is the case. the idf is checking they are trying to go through

all of the rigor that it takes to make sure that they know exactly who was killed there, saying that they have killed three terrorists and they suspect one may be sinwar. i want to bring in our nada bashir, who is joining us now. you've done extensive reporting on the palestinian ends who are in gaza, who have been dealing with this war that has just left a huge humanitarian crisis. i am curious what you think this means for the people of gaza? but also how they may react if indeed sinwar has been taken out by israeli forces well, look, we've been hearing from the israeli military from the outset of this war that they want to target hamas leaders wherever they may be located. >> whether that's in the gaza strip, whether that's in lebanon, whether that is indeed in on iranian territory this will be a significant couldn't blow to hamas. we have of course seen the israeli military targeting hamas militants on the ground and gaza throughout this whole, but of course this is the leader, is significant because somebody who has gained significant

reputation across the gaza strip for years now out of course for many in gaza at be fighting that now seeing by hamas is seen as a form of resistance against the israeli military assault. but of course, as jeremy mentioned, a little aid, there is also a lot of anger from the palestinian people directed towards hamas as well for dragging gaza into this war as well. so there has been mixed emotions towards hamas as an organization. and of course internationally hamas, you'd, widely as terrorist organization, yahya sinwar, enemy number one for the israeli government, who from the outset of this we'll have expressed their intention to eliminate yahya sinwar and other senior leaders. and that is what we have been seeing as you just heard that we've seen the leader of hezbollah sohnlein hassan nasrallah killed. we saw earlier in the year, hamas deputy political leader, saleh al-arouri assassinated in beirut related. so it's made and near the political leader assassinated

two. so we have been seeing these senior figures across what hamas and hezbollah being targeted directly by the israelis israeli military. of course, it remains to be confirmed whether indeed yehia sinwar has in fact been killed. israeli military is still carrying out. their assessments. so we have no update on that. just yet for many in gaza, of course it remains to be seen how this translates on the ground, what this means for israel's military operations as well. we know a court which went to the u.s. government assessment that hamas has military capabilities have been downgraded. we've previously heard from the state department saying that they believe hamas's military capabilities have been downgraded to a point where they are no longer in a position to carry out an attack on the sale of the attack on israel. we saw on october 7, the israeli government has maintained that while it is intent on downgrading hamas's military capabilities, they want to eradicate the organization entirely, particularly its top leaders does that has been the expressed aim of the israeli

government and military from the outset of this war. and we've heard from more far-right members are be israeli cabinet, including, of course, the final minister benjamin, as you all saying they are intent on completing their express goals. that is, of course, the complete eradication of hamas, despite the immense civilians holder we have seen in gaza, despite a humanitarian catastrophe that continues to deteriorate in gaza, this war continues again with the ceasefire negotiations, yehya sinwar, a key figure in those discussions. the u.s. and israel have accused yet he is in what of standing in the way of progress of ceasefire to go she ages others, including regional mediators, have accused the israeli government are putting forward new conditions which have prevented the negotiations from moving forward. at what this will mean. mean for the ceasefire negotiations. again, that remains to be seen, but it is a significant blow to hamas, if indeed this is confirmed, and of course the reaction on the ground from palestinian it's will remixed that was your

standby for a moment, if you will, a joining us now is barak ravid from axios and cnn contributor as well. >> i don't think anyone is more plugged in to really sources, then you are barack. what are you hearing at this moment about these reports? that it's possible that yahya sinwar was one of these three terrorists killed well, first, at the moment with the idf and the shin bet intelligence agency are doing is they are working on getting a dna test done and to match the fingerprints the israelis have both if you're scene what us fingerprints and dna from the time when he was in israeli prison. >> so this shouldn't be a very complicated thing to do. so i think that it's a mat in the matter of hours and not many hours, we'll have a confirmation whether it is if sinwar or not. but all the israeli officials, i speak to who say that it is 99% that if you're sinwar, the leader of

hamas, the mastermind of the october 7 attacks, who was responsible for murder of 1,200 people on october 7, among them, more than 43 americans is that rock with all of your connections and your sources what are you hearing in terms of if this is sinwar, you said that what you're hearing from your sources there are 99% there. we will wait and hear from the israeli government of course. but what are you hearing from your sources on the if then what it is sinwar, then what? >> well, i think one of the things that at least these israeli officials felt was that it will be very hard to reach an end to the war while sinwar is still alive for, for several

reasons. one reason is that one of the main scenarios they be israelis want to achieve is a hamas surrender. and it was clear that sinwar is not going to surrender, not going to leave the gaza strip and not willing to end the war. on the other hand killing sinwar is a huge win for the israeli government. and this is, this might be the winning picture that benjamin netanyahu was looking for. and that will allow politically for the israeli government to move towards ending the war. so i think if indeed it has, sinwar is dead. this is a dramatic moment in this war that might take us to the next phase and allow us to we start talking seriously about ending this war. >> and we are still waiting for confirmation as to whether or not it is in fact the head of hamas, yahya sinwar who has been killed in this strike. i

do want to ask you, just sort of a knock on to this. he does have a brother muhammad sinwar who all of the other, many of the other commanders around him, senior commanders around sinwar have been killed and that's what he does have a brother who is known to be a more experienced ruthless person than the people who have been at the top of hamas would there be a sense that they will be worried about potentially his brother then taking the reins or would this be a moment where israel looks at this that hamas is completely decimated. and as you said, starts to back out of this war well ruthless from eisha sinwar anybody can be, you know, a person that gave the order to conduct the biggest massacre of jews since the holocaust. >> i'm not sure. i mean, it's so, it's an already, pretty high bar on the other and i

think hamas is decimated it is not functioning anymore as a military organization and you get sinwar was a symbol for hamas and for its members and even though, you know, hamas is not going to be completely wiped out, not going to be completely destroyed. i think that it will be anybody else within hamas will have a very hard time to achieve the same status. if you're sinwar ahead brought, do you have any visibility on what the idf for shin bet. thanks. that sinwar has been doing in recent weeks or months, how he has been living or operating, which then might fill us in on how israel stage this operation, if that is in fact what happened but by the way i mean, this is a great question because this is exactly how this operation

happened. it's not even an operation. i don't think we can call it an operation. this thing happened by coincidence okay. i heard from the very senior idf officials that said it wasn't based on intelligence it's not that the soldiers were there looking if you're sinwar, it was a routine patrol that encountered three armed men between the house's exchange fire and kill them. >> and only then they realized that this person, at least one of them might be if you're sinwar and what it shows you that sinwar was moving between hiding places in the last few months. >> that what is, has been doing and he was moved very small group with only two bodyguards. and this is how it happened. it was not some, you sophisticated operation. this is not the ladder in a boat abad this is a coincidence and many israeli commanders said for months that the fact that the gaza strip is

full of idf forces will at the end of the day sinwar right? that is fascinating because i was my question was going to be what an intelligence success are you hearing this would be? and it's happened stance because, well, especially because what was known publicly was that sinwar was jumped in the tunnels. sinwar was hiding out, and that was the problem all along is that he was being protected and he was and that's why they could not find him for so long or at all? and you're saying this was a routine patrol that led them to this? >> yes. yes. >> it again, according to the idf officials, i spoke to and they're pretty senior. this was not some sophisticated operation this was not like an intelligence base rate the soldiers who killed get to sinwar were not part of the

navy seals or some special forces. they were regular infantry soldiers that encountered armed men exchange fire like any incident that happens. i don't know, ten times a day in gaza over the last few months what you're saying is this was not a strike, right? >> this was something else, routine patrol. it was basically he was shot instead of there being an airstrike. is that what you're what you're saying that you're hearing from israeli officials again, i don't know if the final exchange of fire that killed them was from the infantry soldiers or from a drone that was called into the area. >> i don't know that specific point. i'm just saying that it wasn't like they usually the idf gets intelligence and then either fighter jets or a drone conducts an air strike on a target. this was not the case.

this incident started as a you know, encounter on in a neighborhood in southern gaza between infantry soldiers and armed palestinian militants. and only after the incident ended, they realize that one of the militants was highly probable was. >> so brock, if we can do this because we got a team of people here. if you need to go make phone calls or text people, do it and let us know what you find out and get back to us. as soon as you can. so stand and do what you need to do is sourcing is amazing sources, is amazing. i want to bring back in jeremy diamond just to reset for a second here before we bring in our other guest, jeremy, just reset with the news here. what has been explicitly said at this point by the idf official statement from the idf, what they are saying for now is that they have killed

what they describe as three terrorists in the gaza strip. and they say that one of those may indeed be yahya sinwar. they say that they are quote, checking the possibility of whether or not it was him, but they say that for now, the identity of those three men cannot yet be confirmed. they are also saying, and this is very notable and very important that there are quote, no signs of the presence of hostages in the area and also notably that this exchange of fire, this incident where this man who may be yahya sinwar was killed, that this happened in a building and i just want to hone in on that for a moment because over the course of the last year, the working assumption has been that yahya sinwar has been underground, that he has been in the maze of tunnels beneath gaza. some of these tunnels going as far as 506070 meters underground and the notion that he would have been above ground here shows that he was moving hiding

places that he was aboveground rather than inside of a tunnel. and in addition, the fact that there were no hostages the president also potentially breaks another major assumption that we have had over the course of the last year, and that is that sinwar was believed to be hiding underground with a group of hostages, potentially a dozen hostages or so that he was effectively using as a human shield. so that should the idf find out his location and want to take him out, that they might think twice before dropping one of those massive 2000 pound bombs in order to kill him. but in this case, the israeli military is saying that this man who they believe may be but don't yet have confirmation of whether this was yahya sinwar was not surrounded with any hostages in the area. this would of course be an earth-shattering moment in this war that has lasted now for a year and ten days since that october 7 massacre of which sinwar was indeed the mastermind and certainly was the man who ultimately gave the go ahead to carry out that

attack that saw the killing of some 1,200 israelis. the majority of whom were civilians. and of course beyond that, he and his decision to launch that attack unleashed a war that has seen more than 41,000 palestinians killed according to the palestinian ministry of health over the course of the last year. and while certainly those palestinians were killed by israeli bombs and bullets, there's no question that even inside of gaza a share of people view him as also partially responsible for the death and destruction that has been wrought in gaza since october 7 of last year. >> let's stick with this breaking news and let's get over to the state department now. kiley, obviously, kylie atwood is there. obviously, you the us government asking a lot of questions and probably scrambling at this moment. what have you heard from the state department so far well, listen, kate, we're not actually hearing anything official from the biden administration right now. >> the president and is on his

way to europe. he is joined by the secretary of state by his national security advisor on that flight so rest assured that they are likely tracking this as closely as we are, but we have not heard any official statements out from us officials. i want to give you some context here for how major this development would be in the eyes of us officials who have been working really for the greater part of the last year to try and push forward a ceasefire and hostage release deal between sinwar, the hamas, and israel. we heard just in recent months from the secretary state anthony blinken, that sinwar is critical to that deal that he quote the fate of the deal is in sinwar's hands. that's how the secretary of state recently put it. and obviously we have seen those conversations stalled, if not completely halted in recent weeks. in recent months as the israelis have really focused their military might on the north

when it comes to that a conflict between israel and hezbollah across the lebanese border. and so us officials have not seen much momentum at all when it comes to the efforts that they have put into those hostage and ceasefire negotiations. but we should know that one of the major challenges with those ongoing associations had been that it would take a long time for hamas to get back to the negotiators, the u.s. officials and the qatari officials were shuttling between is israel and hamas to try and come to a deal and the u.s believed that the reason that it was taking so long is because sinwar was in the words of the secretary of state, deep under the tunnels of gaza, us believed that he was hidden somewhere, that there were no electronic messages coming out from him that how the israelis allowed us intelligence and track where he was. one of the major things that we'll be watching to learn if it is confirmed that

this operator raising this idf operation in gaza, has killed sinwar, is exactly how this all happened, where sinwar was actually found at the end of the day, given the working thompson that he was so deep underground. and of course the other question is, does this actually pave the way for those ceasefire and hostage negotiations to begin in fulsome, once again who is going to be the person who's going to be speaking for hamas. if sinwar is no longer making the ultimate decisions us officials long said, yes, there are many members of hamas who are in doha who we are in touch with. there are members of hamas who are around sinwar in the tunnels of gaza, but ultimately, sinwar is the one who makes the final decision. he was the one who is blocking any deal from going forward, but there's context here. to consider, of course, with the death of the leader of hezbollah, just a few weeks ago, we have not seen an end to the conflict between the

israelis and the un hasn't hello, along that lebanese border even into beirut. now so it's not rest assured that this will in fact lead to an end of this conflict. but us officials were we'll certainly see it as an opportunity to push it in that direction. >> thank you. to our kylie atwood and just to recap the possibility the here is that the idf may have killed, yahya sinwar, who is the head of hamas, one of the few leadership left the person and who was the mastermind for october 7? we do not know if that is actually happened because the idf is checking his fingerprints and checking dna. but we will be sticking with the story throughout with much more information on how this happened where this happened, and what it means for the war. in the middle east before election day vice president harris faces voters

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energy in just two weeks i'll take that. >> sure. max protein 30 grams protein, one gram, sugar, and a protein blend feed muscles up to seven hours forgettable ordered him credit for back this is cnn breaking news and we are continuing to follow this major breaking news potentially out of israel l rigt now, the idf, the israeli defense force has put out a statement men saying that they have taken out three terrorists, hamas terrorists in gaza, and what they are investigating right now in trying to do an identification on is to see if one of them is the leader of hamas, yahya sinwar. >> a lot a lot going into this and this will have seismic impact in the region in this

war. >> let's continue with our breaking news coverage. cnn military analyst, colonel cedric leighton is back with us. i want to ask you i want to just read to you some of the reporting we heard from barak ravid, cnn contributor and axios reporter with deep he deeply and well sourced in israel. he reported in how this played out cedric, which is surprising, is that the idf and shin bet said the incident took place wednesday night, but also happened to during a routine patrol troll by the idf that soldiers encountered three armed men. they exchanged fire and killed them. that this wasn't a a huge intelligence operation that had a lot of buildup lead up, and planning that this was basically coincidence that this happened. what's your reaction to that? >> yeah, well, war is sometimes full of coincidences like this. now you know, putting this in

context of, bit, we have to remember that a lot of the reasons for yahya sinwar to be at that location if he indeed was at that location, it wasn't been killed. i was the result of what they call shaping being operations. so they've moved the israelis were able to move the hamas leadership cadre into different areas, kind of boxed them in and now they were able to escape in certain areas, certain times. they were able to survive obviously for a very, very long time. but sometimes these, these moments when square a patrol actually finds the guy and takes him out. that is very much a distinct, distinct possibility here. and especially given the fact that the israelis are hard in this area, they are constantly moving around trying to find not only the hospital but also trying to find other hamas fighters i it if is in war was moving. let's say from one to another or one hideout

to another of whatever type i was at some point going to be likely that he would encounter in israeli patrol and did that based on barack's reporting appears to have happened in this case it's quite astonishing from one perspective, we have to remember that it is the result of some of the shaping operations that took place in order to for the israelis to potentially get at to this point alright, let's go ahead, stay with us, cedric. let's go ahead and speak with aaron david miller when you hear this news what are the things that will happen next? because there are a lot of questions if it is true that the israeli military has taken out the leaf leader of hamas, yahya sinwar. then what happens next? and what needs to be worried about, for example, the hostages and the war itself yeah, thanks for

having this the middle east, i don't usually believe in game game-changers are inflection points. they have been ground up in the daily grind of this conflict. >> well, this is a big rock dropped in a lake and the ripples are quite extraordinary if, if and secretary blinken thing is right. >> yeah, history and why was the preeminent palestinian decision maker responsible for the terrorist surge of october 7. it flicking a degree of cruelty in pain on israeli civilians on precedent in the israeli palestinian conflict. then the question becomes, if he is the pre-eminent decision maker who, who ultimately will make decisions on so many issues who is going to essentially plan hamas's military strategy. israelis killed us on nasrallah. he's dead. hizballah's survives. what impact will this have on command and control with respect to hamas has continued insurgency and military campaign second is the issue of hostages we know from the tragedy that willful execution

of six hostages, that the standing orders were if israeli patrols approach kill your hostages does this enhance the prospects of negotiating negotiations leading to a deal, or does it injected? kind of mean, certainty that is according to jeopardize and fundamentally mean that the 101 hostages, half of whom the israelis believe are no longer alive. what, what are the prospects now for their release? sinwar does have a deputy at least on paper, a little higher. he's in qatar he's been sort of summing when negotiations brokered by the qataris and egyptians were ongoing. does he matter in this sense? and then to barak ravid's point? >> the reality is you're not talking a year of this confrontation. >> hamas as a military organization has been more or less decimated. it could survive as an, as an insurgency, but will this

provide the kind of political explanation and justification? for benjamin netanyahu to begin to seriously consider to cooperate in a way to try to de-escalate and ultimately and the war in gaza, these questions, i think are unanswerable, right now but the ripples are quite clear. one additional point you know this, how they found him. i mean, this is an example, perhaps of hiding in plain sight. you have a tunnel system, half the half the length of the new york new york subway system. sinwar may well have been moving from tunnel to tunnel. they killed mohammed deif because he surfaced at a team meeting. and the israelis were able to target and eliminate him. so again, there's a lot of tiktok and his backstory that has yet to be revealed, but it is i think a transformative moment in the war in gaza just very quickly. >> are you did mention benjamin

netanyahu. >> and there's and the possibility that this gives netanyahu a chance to declare a victory and you said you don't know what that would lead to, what what might it lead to? >> i mean, what are the possibilities here well, you have a plan on the table, a three-phase negotiating plan, first phase was a limited release of hostages in exchange for six ceasefire and a surge in of humanitarian assistance into gaza. >> second phase to be negotiated, which would presumably have managed withdrawal, of israeli forces from gaza. and the release of the remaining hostages. i mean, i suspect if in fact you are now talking about negotiation if there is a palestinian decision maker on the hamas side. now understand that negotiations is the only way out of this if the organization is going to survive in some form, you may have an opening,

but again, you have inertia and you have the need to continue to look for hostages rather than negotiate. i don't think the israeli government position is going to immediately default into let stop shooting and now let's start talking >> aaron david miller. thank you so much for being with us. if you could stick stick around, please. we are waiting to hear more, if anything, more details hill coming from the idf coming from we're still we've heard nothing from the israeli prime minister. we continue to ask about that as well. in the meantime, let's bring in chief national security the correspondent, alex marquardt. alex, you've been working your sources as well. what are you hearing about this and the significance truly if sinwar is dead? >> well kate, no doubt, massively significant, just to follow on what aaron was saying there. i think the real question that not only we are asking, but us officials are asking this morning because they don't know the answer to

it as to what extent would the death of sinwar be an off ramp for netanyahu? you have an organization a military organization, and a governmental organization in gaza that has been severely crippled around half of their fighters, according to idf estimates, have been killed. the senior most echelon, many of them also taken out mohammed deif, the head of the military wing, his deputy marwan issa, and now possibly the head of the entire organization yahya sinwar. so does this provide a moment for prime minister benjamin netanyahu to declare victory? it was hard for us officials to see how israel could say that they had won the war with hamas without killing sinwar. so they have looked at this potential moment for months as that tipping point, as that moment where netanyahu would be able to say, look, we have taken them out militarily and us agrees with that, that they would not be able to carry out another massacre another attack like october 7, they

have taken them out in terms of their political and governance structure. they're not the organization they once were. so can netanyahu now say the war is over and what are the ramifications after that? what are the other dominos after that? because you have other militant organizations, terrorist organizations like hezbollah, the houthis, who have all said that we are attacking israel because of what israel is doing in gaza than once that war ends. so too will our efforts against israel now, the horse has already out of the barn when it comes to lebanon, israel is fully has dived in headfirst into a conflict there those operations are fully underway but this is a real moment that us officials will look at as a possibility where they will be able to, yet again tell the israelis your war in gaza is one. it needs to end. we need to come to some kind of ceasefire agreement. of course erin and the other guests have been saying that that those conversations have

been dead the water for quite some time now, this will be a time when us officials will say we can perhaps revive that major questions of course, about the hostages. it's not like with the death of sinwar that suddenly hamas is up, going up and release those hostages that will certainly notes still need to be negotiations. but the biden administration and of course they have not confirmed this yet because there are waiting for the israeli confirmation, but they will look at this as a real opportunity to end not just the war in gaza, but the rapidly expanding conflicts across the region. >> all right, thank you so much to you there. alex marquardt. and just to wrap up, as we're going to continue to talk about this big breaking news, the idf at this point is it's checking to see as we are speaking, whether or not that one of the three terrorists, they said that they have killed in gaza is the head of hamas, yahya sinwar, who was the mastermind the october 7 attacks. we will be right back

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>> us money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america potentially, i keep having to say potentially, but it is breaking news right now. the idf saying that they are, they have taken out in, they've taken out three hamas terrorists. but in doing so, they are now working to identify and using both fingerprint and dna to try to confirm if one of those people is the leader of hamas. the

decision-maker he has sinwar, who the idf, who israel, who the united states has been looking for for years, especially since the october 7 terror attack. this would be seismic in the region. let's continue our coverage as we wait to hear more from the israeli government seen as arlette saenz is at the white house. ripple effects, huge ripple effects all the way from israel and gaza too. the united states and the white house, arlette, have you, what have you heard, if anything, from white house officials so far well, kate, us officials officially has been quite quiet so far as the idf has said that they are investigating whether an operation did in fact kill hamas leader yahya it's sinwar a bit earlier today. >> but at some point, but if this is confirmed that he has been killed, it would have major implications and ramifications for the biden administration. and their push to try to end this war and war us officials have repeatedly said that they believe sinwar

is one of the main opposite the goals in place to try to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal as recently as tuesday the white house, a spokesperson john kirby, has said that there were no fresh negotiations to end this war, and that part of that is because sinwar had no interest in having serious discussions at this matter, but us officials have long viewed the potential death of sinwar as a major game changer. in this conflict, officials have clung to hope that this could maybe serve as an if he were to be a confirmed dead, that this could potentially serve as a path the trying to find an end to this war. one thing that officials and people have been talking about on our air, believe is that if sinwar were to die perhaps this would be enough of a catalyst for israel to decide that many of its objectives in this war have been achieved. now, of course, even as they are seeing arguing that this could and potentially be an off-ramp to this war.

it's still unclear exactly how all of this will pan out. i will know president biden is currently on a plane to germany. he is traveling with secretary of state antony blinken, as well as his national security advisor, jake sullivan. they were sent to have meetings is there relating to ukraine, but certainly they will be watching these developments in the coming hours very closely as this could have a major effect on the way that this war, has been proceeding now at this time. >> all right, thank you so much arlette saenz, let's go now to barak ravid, who's been giving us real insight into how this happened from his sources baraka for the palestinians who have been caught in the middle of this horrific war who have said that if sinwar has indeed been killed at that is what has been determined by the israeli military, that it could give prime minister netanyahu and off-ramp to get out of this war but there is something that is a sticking point here. the 101 hostages who are still in gaza, whose families have been begging netanyahu to get them out safely. what might this

mean for them? >> so first about the palestinians in gaza, you know, one of the amazing things i saw on social media by palestinians were in gaza right now. on, on the one-year anniversary of october 7, the amount of curses and, harsh criticism against sinwar for leading gaza, where it is right now, was pretty astonishing to watch on the hostage deal two things. first, prime minister netanyahu, as the idf to inform all the hostage families, but no hostages were harmed in this incident second i think that this really can be on the one hand, an opportunity get to a hostage deal. on the other hand, there's also a big risk here because sinwar was the leader that was a centrally

centralised leader. he was in control without him. you now have several hamas commanders and warlords were holding hostages. and it might be even more complex now to get a deal end, i just quickly follow just about the hostages. what's there from your sources? any any kind of evidence that there were hostages somewhere nearby or around this area? >> okay. >> rock standby, if you would. >> what i hear from i'm so sorry. i didn't mean to interrupt you. barack were you will come back to in just a second. i want to bring in retired lieutenant lieutenant general mark hertling, who's also with it's us now, general. thank you. >> there's a war between israel and hamas still raging in gaza. >> what do you think this would do to that war if this were to be true that the leader of hamas were to be dead yeah. commentary, john, that's that's a perfect question to ask because there's already a

lot of heavy breathing about the potential for this bringing the war to an end, the united states saying that potential for israel to doing certain things because of the killing the potential killing of son sidebar. but here's what i would suggest it's great if the leader of an organization is killed, it's great when the command and control structure is dismantled, but that doesn't mean the end of the terrorist organization. if i can say, if anyone has learned that the united states has the whack-a-mole of getting terrorist out of the network is important because it disrupts the organization and causes dysfunction which this may will. but i can't tell you the number of times john, how many times when i was in combat and we would strike a headquarters and kill a terrorist leader. and we'd say, hey, that's the beginning of the end and then the next day there'll be a car bomb or more missile strikes so i'm suggesting that yeah, this is a big deal. it's significant if sinwar was killed, but it's

not, it may not be the end. and the other thing, the united states may see this as a next step in terms of a peace deal are getting this the hostages out. the opposite may be seen by israel. hey, we've got our feet on the throat, we killed a lot of tourists, leaders we've destroyed much of hamas within the gaza strip. let's continue the fight. so they are no longer in existence. >> so you have those kind of competing questions going line. whenever some major leader like this or osama bin laden or someone like that is killed. but the organization lives on. and i think we'll see some of that within gaza. >> all right. general hertling. thank you very much. all right. just to recap the breaking news we've been following all throughout this hour. we're waiting to hear from the idf, waiting to hear from the israeli government as the idf announced earlier, just about one hour ago, that they've taken out 23 terrorists hamas

terrorists in gaza, and are working now to, through dna and fingerprint identification to see it to confirm whether or not one of those hill was the leader the leader of hamas, yahya sinwar, standing by this. as we continue to say, and as we just heard from mark hertling would have a seismic impact in the region but would also bring about so many questions of what does this mean for the war that israel has between israel and hamas? what does this mean for the hostage families who are waiting to hear about the lives of their loved ones. and what does this mean for the people in people of gaza? so many questions we continue to follow this major breaking good news on cnn. >> after this think that might be eddie wells is getting out. people who do see whatsapp out there,

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