JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar , a chief architect of last years attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israels most-wanted man.

Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores just over a year after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others in an attack that stunned the country . They also presented it as a turning point in the campaign to destroy Hamas , urging the group to surrender and release some 100 hostages still in Gaza.

Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the start of the day after Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

U.S. officials expressed hopes for a cease-fire with Sinwar out of the picture. But eliminating him may not end the devastating war , during which Israel has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children.