‘Beginning of the end,’ says Netanyahu after Hamas leader Sinwar killed by Israeli troops
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JERUSALEM/CAIRO - Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said on Oct 18 that it was moving to a new and escalating phase in its war against Israel, while Iran said “the spirit of resistance will be strengthened” after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave on Oct 16, Israel said a day later.
His killing marks a huge success for Israel and a pivotal event in the year-long conflict. Western leaders said his death offered an opportunity for the war to end, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would go on.
Mr Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas at the start of the war, hailed Sinwar’s killing, saying: “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end.
“Today, we have settled the score. Today, evil has been dealt a blow, but our task has still not been completed,” Mr Netanyahu said in a recorded video statement after the death was confirmed on Oct 17.
“To the dear hostage families, I say: This is an important moment in the war. We will continue full force until all your loved ones, our loved ones, are home.”
Sinwar, who was named as Hamas’ overall leader following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, was believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas had built under Gaza over the past two decades.
He was killed during a gun battle in southern Gaza on Oct 16 by Israeli troops who were initially unaware that they had caught their country’s number one 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.
Hamas has not made any comment itself, but sources within the group have said the indications they have seen suggest Sinwar was indeed killed by Israeli troops.
People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people at Al-Aqsa hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on Oct 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
‘Chief obstacle’
Despite Western hopes of a ceasefire, Sinwar’s death could dial up hostilities in the Middle East, where the prospect of an even wider conflict has grown.
Israel has launched a ground campaign in Lebanon over the past month and is now planning a response to an Oct 1 missile attack carried out by Iran, ally of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
But the demise of the man who planned the attack last year in which fighters killed 1,200 people in Israel and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, could also help push forward stalled efforts to end the war in which Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
US President Joe Biden, who spoke to Mr Netanyahu by phone to congratulate him, said Sinwar’s death provided a chance for the conflict in Gaza to finally end and for Israeli hostages to be brought home.
Families and supporters of hostages kidnapped during the Oct 7, 2023, attack protest to demand their immediate release after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The US wants to kick-start talks on a proposal to achieve a ceasefire and secure the release of hostages, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, calling Sinwar the “chief obstacle” to ending the war.
“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,” he said.
In recent weeks, Sinwar had refused to negotiate at all, Mr Miller said.
Iran gave no sign that the killing would shift its support. “The spirit of resistance will be strengthened” following the death of Sinwar, 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”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate phone calls on Oct 17 with leaders in Saudi Arabia and Qatar aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East, the State Department said.
People celebrate after the Israeli military confirmed the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in Jerusalem, on Oct 17.
PHOTO: AFP
No comfort, no compromise
Families of Israeli hostages said that while the killing of Sinwar was a significant achievement, it would not be complete while hostages 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”.
“A little justice, but no comfort,” he said. “There will be comfort only when Naama, Liri, Agam, Daniela and Karina, our girl’s friends, return home.”
In Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, a displaced Palestinian named Thabet Amour told Reuters the Palestinian fight would continue.
“This is resistance that does not disappear when men disappear,” he said. “The assassination of Sinwar will not lead to the end of the resistance or to a compromise or surrender and raising the white flag.” REUTERS
