JERUSALEM - Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has been killed by Israeli troops in Gaza.

Sinwar, the suspected mastermind of the attack by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7 last year, died on Wednesday in an operation in southern Gaza after a year-long pursuit, the Israeli army said.

He was the most-wanted Hamas member throughout the war Israel launched in retaliation, with a $400,000 dead-or-alive bounty on his head.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the killing of Sinwar was the "beginning of the end" of the war in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden said he was sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel to push for a ceasefire deal. Iran’s UN mission said Sinwar's death would lead to the strengthening of “resistance” in the region.

News of the killing raised hopes among some Israelis and Palestinians that the year-long war in Gaza would end, while others feared it would only spur more fighting.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk has warned Israel any “large-scale, forcible transfer” of civilians out of conflict-racked northern Gaza could constitute a war crime, unless there were “imperative military grounds” for doing so.

The UAE has carried out its 51st drop of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as part of the Birds of Goodness operation.