Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz confirmed following a strike in Rafah that was not originally intended to take out the Oct. 7 mastermind.

"Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers," Katz said in a statement. "Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar," the Israel Defense Forces tweeted shortly thereafter.

Photos showed a brainless Sinwar lying in rubble after a group of IDF reservists spotted three terrorists in a building and struck, according to Israeli reporter Nadav Eyal. DNA tests later confirmed that one of those three men was Sinwar, Israel's Channel 12 reported.

Sinwar has evaded Israeli forces for nearly a year since he orchestrated the Oct. 7 attack that slaughtered scores of innocents. His death would mark a massive victory for Israel less than two weeks after the country marked the one-year anniversary of the terror spree.

Since the war began, Israel has repeatedly eliminated Hamas's senior leadership in targeted strikes, including a daring operation in Tehran earlier this year that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has also wiped out Hezbollah's top commanders in Lebanon, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and the heads of the terror group's elite fighting forces.

Sinwar, 62, formally assumed Hamas's top leadership post in August, after Haniyeh was killed by a remote explosive device while attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran.

Sinwar's death also deals another major blow to Iran, which has provided Hamas and Hezbollah with the funding and weapons needed to conduct their war on Israel. Following Tehran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile strike on the Jewish state, the region has been on edge in anticipation of an Israeli counterstrike, the plans for which are reportedly finalized. Israel is expected to target multiple military sites in Iran prior to the U.S. presidential election in November.

Sinwar has helmed Hamas's day-to-day operations in Gaza since 2017 and was the central architect of the brutal Oct. 7 terror spree that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and saw 251 people, including Americans, kidnapped by the jihadi group. More than 100 remain in captivity, and Sinwar was known to travel through the Gaza Strip with several in tow, hoping to deter an Israeli strike on his location.

Earlier this year, reports emerged that Sinwar had begun dressing like a woman while walking the streets of Gaza to avoid IDF detection.

The Biden-Harris administration has been leaning on Israel to wind down its war effort for the better part of a year, claiming that the humanitarian toll in Gaza is too great. Earlier this week, American officials threatened to cut off critical American arms shipments to Israel if the Jewish state does not do more to deliver aid into Gaza.

This is a developing story and will be updated.