Netanyahu promises more war, dashing peace hopes after killing of Hamas leader
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Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar was killed during an operation in Gaza by Israeli soldiers on Oct 16.
PHOTO: AFP
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JERUSALEM/CAIRO – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises to press on with Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon dashed hopes on Oct 18 that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
Hamas vowed on the same day that it would not release the hostages it seized during its Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel until the Gaza war ends, as it mourned the death of Sinwar.
“We mourn the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim,” Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in a recorded video statement.
The hostages “will not return... unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from it, and our heroic prisoners are released from the occupation’s prisons,” he added.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, meanwhile, vowed to escalate fighting against Israel, and the group’s backer Iran said “the spirit of resistance” would be strengthened by the death of its Palestinian ally Sinwar in Gaza.
Sinwar, a mastermind of the 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed during an operation by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Oct 16, a pivotal event in the year-long conflict.
Mr Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing a milestone late on Oct 17 but vowed to keep up the war, which in recent weeks expanded from fighting against Hamas in Gaza into an invasion of southern Lebanon and the bombardment of large swathes of the country.
“The war, my dear ones, is not yet over,” Mr Netanyahu told Israelis, saying fighting would continue until the hostages held by Hamas are released.
“We have before us a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future,” he added, referring to Iran and its militant allies across the region in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Mr Netanyahu’s comments contrasted with those of Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, who said Sinwar’s death offered a chance for the conflict to end
The US wants to kick-start ceasefire talks and secure the release of hostages, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, adding that Sinwar had been refusing to negotiate.
“That obstacle has obviously been removed. Can’t predict that that means whoever replaces (Sinwar) will agree to a ceasefire, but it does remove what has been in recent months the chief obstacle to getting one,” Mr Miller said.
One senior diplomat working in Lebanon told Reuters that hopes that Sinwar’s death would end the war appeared misplaced.
“We had hoped, really throughout this, that getting rid of Sinwar would be the turning point where the wars would end... where everyone would be ready to put their weapons down. It appears we were once again mistaken,” the diplomat said.
Months of efforts by Israel’s chief backer, the US, to broker ceasefires with Hamas and Hezbollah have failed as Israel has pressed on with its wars, and its archenemy Iran has looked largely powerless to match Israeli military might, including US weapons.
The conflict has caused the first direct Iranian-Israeli confrontations, including missile attacks on Israel in April and on Oct 1.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the October attack, which caused little damage. Washington has pressed Israel to limit targets and not strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.
Sinwar, Hamas’ overall leader following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh
He was killed during a gun battle on Oct 16 by Israeli troops initially unaware they had caught their No. 1 enemy, Israeli officials said.
The military released drone video of what it said was Sinwar, sitting on an armchair and covered in dust inside a destroyed building. He was tracked by the drone as he lay dying, the video showed.
As the drone hovered nearby, the video showed him throwing a stick at it, in an apparent act of desperation.
The Oct 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel
Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Hamas ally on Oct 8, 2023, is the target of Israel’s intensifying assault on Lebanon, which has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced 1.2 million.
Israel has now killed several of Hamas’ top leaders and in a matter of weeks decapitated the Hezbollah leadership, mainly through air strikes. The killings have dealt a blow to what anti-Israeli forces call the Axis of Resistance – a group of proxy militant groups that Iran has spent decades supporting across the region.
Iran showed no sign that Sinwar’s killing would shift its support. “The spirit of resistance will be strengthened,” its mission to the United Nations said.
Hezbollah was also defiant, announcing “the transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with Israel”.
The Israeli military said on Oct 18 it had also killed Muhammad Hassin Ramal, Hezbollah’s commander of the Tayibe area in southern Lebanon.
Families of the Israeli hostages said that while the killing of Sinwar was an achievement, it would not be complete while captives are still in Gaza.
Mr Avi Marciano, father of Ms Noa Marciano, who was killed in captivity by Hamas, told Israeli broadcaster KAN that “the monster, the one who took her from me, who had the blood of all our daughters on his hands, finally met the gates of hell”. REUTERS, AFP
