Heidi Matthews, a law professor at York University in Toronto, specializing in international criminal law and laws of war, calls for an investigation into the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israel.
In a statement published on Twitter, Matthews wrote: ''A wounded fighter attempting an escape is not hors de combat; this is why Israel claims Sinwar was killed while trying to escape. While he was wounded in a first attack & fled to the building in which he died, the video shows him seated when he was killed."
''The physician who conducted Sinwar's autopsy confirmed the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, not tank fire as the IDF later claimed. He was shot in the head after being seriously wounded in an apparent 'double tap.'"
She added: ''Of course, it may be difficult to determine when a combatant is so severely injured that he cannot take part in combat. However, judgment must be made, as there is no permission to carry out an execution of a combatant to ensure he is dead.''
According to her, "Based on the facts we have, Sinwar was able to throw a stick at the drone that documented his final moments. The drone footage grimly summarizes the asymmetry of the entire 'conflict' between Israel and Palestine, with the stick representing the common tool of resistance of stone throwing."
Sinwar was the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, massacre, and repeatedly refused a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal which would have allowed Gaza civilians to return to normalcy.
A preliminary investigation into the incident which led to his death revealed that Sinwar threw two grenades from the window, one of which exploded but did not cause casualties. The force began attempting to demolish the building using tank fire, machine guns, and shoulder launched missiles equipped with a large metal rod to break through obstacles, known as Matadors.
After the first shell, a drone was sent in, and it recorded Sinwar, sitting wounded on the couch, throwing a stick at the drone. At 4 p.m., six hours after the incident began, another shell was fired, along with machine-gun fire, from which Sinwar was killed.
