US President Joe Biden says a ceasefire in Lebanon is possible but ending the Gaza war will be harder
Biden earlier said that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza raises "the prospect of a ceasefire" in the year-long war, but Netanyahu has said it was not the end
Sinwar, who topped Israel's most-wanted list, was the key figure behind the 7 October attacks and was killed after Israeli troops attacked a building in Rafah
Hamas has confirmed their leader was killed in combat, but says his death will only strengthen the group
Elsewhere, the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory says 42,500 people have been killed there since Israel began its military offensive
BBC Verify analyses footage of the killing of Hamas leader
We've just heard from Israeli police, who say Yayha Sinwar's body was initially identified through analysis of his dental records.
It says this was then confirmed by comparison of his fingerprints.
Israel will have both of these, along with his DNA records, as a result of his being in prison there for 22 years.
Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent reporting from Istanbul
Image source, ReutersI met Yahya Sinwar four times. Each time, he was accompanied by tight security measures.
He travelled in a convoy of three identical cars with no licence plates, but he used to engage with dignitaries, officials, activists, and journalists.
Sinwar was always sharp, strong, incisive, provocative, and often threatening as he defended his stance on attacking Israel.
However, in personal interactions, he exhibited a friendly demeanour. Despite his charisma, many within the movement viewed him unfavourably due to his harsh approach.
He did not conceal his close ties to Iran, actively participating in events in Gaza to honour Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed by the US in Iraq in 2020.
Since being released from Israeli prison in 2011, as part of a prisoner exchange deal involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he has ventured outside Gaza only a few times.
Sinwar was open about his differences with the Hamas leadership abroad, and it is widely believed that he did not keep them informed about the details of the 7 October attack.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has released a statement saying Sinwar was killed by its troops in an operation in the south of Gaza yesterday after a "year-long pursuit".
It comes after Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz told his counterparts around the world that Sinwar was killed today. The reason for the discrepancy is not clear.
In a statement, the IDF says Sinwar planned and executed the 7 October attack and was "responsible for the murder and abduction of many Israelis".
"Yahya Sinwar was eliminated after hiding for the past year behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip," it says.
The Israeli military says it has been operating in southern Gaza following intelligence "that indicated the suspected locations of senior members of Hamas".
IDF soldiers from the 828th Brigade operating in the area "identified and eliminated three terrorists", it says, adding an identification process confirmed one of those killed was Sinwar.
The IDF does not say precisely where Sinwar was killed beyond "southern Gaza"
Frank Gardner
Security correspondent
The loss of Yahya Sinwar is a seismic blow to Hamas.
When the group chose him to replace Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of their political wing assassinated on July 31, it was a deliberate act of defiance and resilience. It could not have chosen a more uncompromising figure.
But Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, has seen its leadership eliminated one by one, its fighters killed and its arms dumps blown up.
The group will have to decide whether now is the time to make a deal that ends the year-long Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
Or, conversely, whether to continue fighting and resisting, hoping to outlast Israel’s patience, despite the horrendous death toll this conflict has wreaked upon Palestinian civilians.
The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said recently that a ceasefire deal in Gaza was "90% there". The killing of Sinwar could be an opportunity to finally complete that deal and bring Israel’s hostages home.
It also risks doing the opposite: Driving angry Hamas members further away than ever from any kind of compromise.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog commends Israeli forces for killing the Hamas leader, saying Yahya Sinwar was "responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians, citizens of other countries, and the murder of thousands of innocent people".
"His evil endeavours were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East.
"Now, more than ever, we must act in every way possible to bring back the 101 hostages who are still being held in horrific conditions by Hamas terrorists in Gaza," he says in a post on X, external.
Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul
Sinwar's absence from the scene in Gaza is the biggest strategic loss for Hamas so far.
Anyone who followed the man's career since his release from Israeli prison in 2011 knows that he ruled the political and military components of the organisation and controlled all the joints of power.
He is the one who used to appoint the head of Hamas's government committee that runs Gaza, and the one who appointed the leaders of the military wings of Hamas's battalions in cooperation with his brother Mohammed, who heads the strongest Hamas armed battalions in the southern Gaza Strip.
These facts make it difficult for Hamas to quickly recover after the successive blows it has received and make it difficult for it to find a strong alternative to fill the void left by Sinwar's absence.
In the past, Hamas was forced to hide the name of its general leader for security reasons, and this option was on the table after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh - it may be more strongly on the table now.
More on the confirmation of Sinwar's death from Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz, which came in a personal message to dozens of his counterparts around the world.
He says the Hamas leader was killed by Israeli soldiers today, describing him as the "mastermind behind the massacre and atrocities" of 7 October.
Katz adds: "This is a significant military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the axis of evil of radical Islam led by Iran.
"The elimination of Sinwar opens the possibility for the immediate release of the hostages and paves the way for a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza - without Hamas and without Iranian control."
The Israeli foreign minister says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza.
We'll bring you more on this breaking news soon.
A statement has just come in from the Israeli authorities about the work being carried out to confirm if Yahya Sinwar has been killed.
A joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police says that dental images have been submitted to a forensics lab and DNA testing is currently in progress.
These samples from the alleged body will be compared to records Israel will have of Hamas leader as a result of the 22 years Sinwar spent in Israeli jail.
The statement goes on to say that Israeli police, the IDF and the Shin Bet intelligence agency are "actively working to establish a definitive identification" and that further information will be released when available.
Yahya Sinwar's death would be "historical justice", a retired Israeli general has told the BBC.
Israel Ziv, a former senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), tells the BBC's Newshour programme that the Hamas leader's death is "pretty much a done deal".
"Sinwar was the one to start the massacre of October 7th, and it's not just a justice for the Israeli people, for the victims' families, but it's also for the Palestinian people because he was the one to bring on them the result of the October 7th vicious attack," he adds.
Again, it is important to note that Sinwar's death has not been confirmed.
By Nick Eardley
BBC Verify spends a lot of time looking at online material we can find from Gaza. Because international journalists don't have free access to the area, it can be invaluable in building up a picture.
There are some extremely graphic photographs circulating, with claims they show Yahya Sinwar's body.
They show a dead man, with a severe head injury, lying amongst rubble, in a military-style vest. One image shows Israeli soldiers standing around the body.
We've been comparing the body to other pictures of Sinwar to try and confirm whether it is him.
We can’t independently verify the pictures based on this alone, but there are striking similarities. There is a mark near his left eye, like the prominent mole we know Sinwar has. The teeth look similar, as do the eyebrows.
At this stage, there is not enough visual evidence in the images to pinpoint where exactly they were taken.
There isn't a great deal of information on that at the moment, but we are going to spend the afternoon trying to build up more of a picture.
Israeli operations in Gaza have continued throughout today.
Earlier, at least 22 people were reportedly killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a UN-run school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza, according to local medics and the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.
Here are some pictures from the territory from today.
Image source, Getty ImagesHumanitarian aid packages were dropped by plane over Gaza this morning, following heavy criticism of Israel over the limited amount aid entering Gaza in the past month.
Image source, Getty ImagesHot meals are distributed by a charity group in Gaza City.
Image source, Getty ImagesA body is brought to al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir-al-Balah after a reported Israeli attack
Image source, Getty ImagesDestroyed buildings in Khan Younis, photographed earlier today
Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent
British Defence Secretary John Healey says the UK is still waiting for confirmation from Israel that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed.
But he says if it is correct: "I for one, will not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar - someone who was responsible for the terror attack on October 7th."
Healey says he and the government are conscious that it "triggered not just the darkest, deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Second World War, but that it’s triggered more than a year of conflict and an intolerable level of civilian Palestinian casualties”.
As we reported earlier, at least 22 people have reportedly been killed and dozens injured after an Israeli air strike on a building in Jabalia.
Israel says the site, a school building, was being used as a Hamas command centre, which Hamas has denied.
We're now hearing from a doctor at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia where staff are treating many of the wounded.
"We received a lot of patients," says Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, many of which are children and women.
In a recorded message, he tells the BBC that the hospital is small so its emergency department can't take all the patients.
He says hospital staff are working "under stress, under fear, and under sound of the explosions everywhere", and they are in short supply of medicine, medical supplies and equipment as well as staff.
According to BBC sources familiar with the matter, there is currently a growing assessment that Yahya Sinwar is dead, but final confirmation is still needed.
Wyre Davies
reporting from Jerusalem
Yahya Sinwar is Israel’s number one target in Gaza and was accused of having been responsible for organising and directing the 7 October attacks last year, when thousands of armed men broke through the Gaza fence, killing 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.
Graphic images posted online show a figure resembling Sinwar lying in the rubble of a building in the aftermath of intense military activity with clearly fatal injuries.
It’s thought that tests - both physical and biometric - will be carried out by the Israelis to ascertain if it is indeed him.
If he has been killed, it would be a significant military success for Israel. Sinwar, 61, was released from an Israeli jail in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap and became a hard-line and hugely influential figure in Hamas who favoured armed confrontation with Israel over diplomatic initiatives.
It was assumed that Sinwar had been spending much of the war located in tunnels under Gaza, surrounded by a human shield of Israeli hostages, especially after he became Hamas’s overall leader following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.
But according to reports from the IDF, no hostages were found near the location – which may be significant.
His death would not bring about an immediate end to Israel’s war in Gaza but with continued Israeli military operations against Hamas across the Palestinian territory, in which many thousands of civilians have also been killed, it might bring the end of the war a little closer.
In a social media post in the last hour, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has quoted the Torah to say Israel's enemies cannot hide.
Gallant shares a passage from Leviticus 26 which says: "You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword."
"Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them," Gallant adds.
Members of Israel's security cabinet have been informed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is very likely dead, two officials with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters.
Anonymous officials have also reportedly told Israel's Channel 12 that Sinwar has been "eliminated".
We're getting more detail now on Israeli efforts to confirm whether it has killed Yahya Sinwar.
An Israeli security official also says DNA testing is underway to confirm whether the person killed was the Hamas leader, AFP reports.
Israel will have the Sinwar's DNA and other biometric data on file from his time in prison there.
Israeli army radio reports the incident occurred during a targeted ground operating in the southern Gazan city of Rafah during which Israeli troops killed three militants, according to Reuters.
The military broadcast also says visual evidence suggests Sinwar was one of those killed, and that DNA tests are being conducted.
The second round of a UN polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is underway, with the first phase completed yesterday in central Gaza.
In a statement earlier, Unicef says 181,429 children were vaccinated with the second dose of the polio vaccine in 14 areas of central Gaza, and vitamin A was distributed to all eligible children alongside it.
Eight health facilities in central Gaza will continue providing polio vaccination and vitamin A doses until 22 October, while the second phase of the programme is due to take place later this month in the south, according to the UN agency.
Unicef says the programme was carried out "amid devastated infrastructure", including the destruction of 75% of critical cold storage facilities used to keep the vaccines at the right temperature.
They add that "attacks killing and injuring children and their families" impacted the vaccination sites.
Image source, Getty Images