BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been martyred while fighting the invading Israeli army in Gaza, a senior leader of the Palestinian movement confirmed on Friday. 
Khalil al-Hayya, chief of Hamas’ Gaza branch, said during a televised address that Sinwar died in combat. 
“Sinwar ascended [to heaven] advancing and not retreating, engaging in the frontlines, moving between combat positions,” Hayya said. 
Hayya, who is based in Qatar, mourned the “martyrdom” of Sinwar which he said would boost the group’s determination to fight the Zionist regime until the establishment of the Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.
“The martyrdom of our leader Sinwar and those martyred before him will only increase the strength and resolve of our group,” he said.
“We continue on the path of Hamas and the spirit of the Al-Aqsa Flood,” he added, referring to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli occupied territories on October 7 last year. “Our banner will not fall but will remain raised high.”
Israeli captives held in Gaza will not return without a ceasefire, full Israeli withdrawal and the release of Palestinian prisoners, Hayya said. 
The Zionist regime said Thursday that Sinwar was martyred in Gaza in a gunfight during an Israeli operation in the southern city of Rafah a day earlier. 
For one Gazan father, Sinwar’s death in battle trying to beat back a drone with a stick was “how heroes die” while, for others, it was an example for future generations.
The video of him masked and mortally wounded in a shell-smashed apartment trying to hurl a stick at the drone filming him inspired pride among Palestinians.
“He died wearing a military vest, fighting with a rifle and grenades, and when he was wounded and was bleeding he fought with a stick. This is how heroes die,” said Adel Rajab, 60, a father of two in Gaza.
“I have watched the video 30 times since last night, there is no better way to die,” said Ali, a 30-year-old taxi driver in Gaza.
“I will make this video a daily duty to watch for my sons, and my grandsons in the future,” said the father of two.
The operation Sinwar planned on Israeli settlements a year ago killed around 1,200 Zionists, with another 253 take to Gaza as captives, according to Israeli tallies.
However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli military had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by the occupying regime to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.
Israel’s subsequent war has devastated Gaza, martyring more than 42,400 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to lie under the rubble, say Gaza health authorities.
Sinwar’s own words in previous speeches, saying he would rather die at Israel’s hands than from a heart attack or car accident, have been repeatedly shared by Palestinians online.
“The best gift the enemy and the Occupation can offer me is to assassinate me and that I go as a martyr at their hands,” he had said.
Now some Palestinians are wondering whether Israel will regret allowing the fulfillment of that wish to be broadcast as a potential recruiting tool for an organization it has sworn to destroy.
“They said he was hiding inside the tunnels. They said he was keeping Israeli prisoners next to him to save his life. Yesterday, we saw that he was hunting down Israeli soldiers in Rafah, where the Occupation has been operating since May,” said Rasha, a displaced 42-year-old mother of four children.
“This is how leaders go, with a rifle in the hand. I supported Sinwar as a leader and today I am proud of him as a martyr,” she added.
In Al-Khalil, a flashpoint West Bank city, Ala’a Hashalmoon said martyring Sinwar would not mean a more conciliatory leader. “What I can figure out is that whoever dies, there is someone who replaces him is more steadfast,” he said.