Two Hamas officials told the BBC discussions to choose a successor for the group's leader Yahya Sinwar, whose killing was confirmed on Thursday, will begin very soon. The officials said that Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar's deputy and the group's most senior official outside Gaza, is considered a strong candidate.

It was around 5:30 in the morning on Thursday in Washington, DC, when senior US officials first got word — and photographs — from their Israeli counterparts: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might be dead.

Biden says Hamas leader guilty of ‘unspeakable savagery’ as State Department promises to ‘redouble’ ceasefire talk efforts