FILE - Yahya Sinwar speaks to foreign correspondents in his office in Gaza City on May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)BEIRUT (AP) — Yahya Sinwar has been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. He was 61. He was Hamas’ top leader and a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the longest, deadliest and most destructive war in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Gaza, no figure loomed larger in determining the war’s trajectory than Sinwar. He was a rarely seen veteran militant who learned Hebrew over years spent in Israeli prisons and who carefully studied his enemy. He worked on bringing Hamas closer to the Iran-led alliance after it moved away following the start of Syria’s conflict in 2011. His death came in what appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops. Israel announced the death Thursday. A Hamas official confirmed it Friday.