In order for Israel to confirm that the man killed on Wednesday in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah was the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinuar, they proceeded to a DNA test after first they cut the finger off the corpseas Chen Kugel, chief pathologist at the National Forensic Center in Tel Aviv, told CNN.

“After the lab made the profile from the finger, we compared it to the profile Sinuar had during his time serving here as a prisoner, so we could finally identify him from his DNA,” said Chen Kugel.

Sinuar spent more than two decades in Israeli prisons before being released in 2011 in a prisoner exchange. According to Kugel first they tried to identify him by his teeth comparing them to other photos taken, but this was not “certified enough”.

After the identification, Sinuar’s body arrived at the forensic center at 21:30 in Tel Aviv on Thursday, where the full DNA test was carried out. Based on the analysis, we were 100% sure that the body belonged to the Hamas leaderKugel added.

Videos and images of Sinuar’s lifeless body circulated on social media. Initially, the photos showed his left hand with all five fingers. Then one finger was missing. The photos also show Sinuar wearing a watch on his left hand, a military vest and a scarf on his head. At the same time, his right hand was hit. In other photos, his body position is seen to have changed and the watch has been removed from his hand as well as his vest and scarf.