The war in Gaza looks set to continue after the death of Hamas leader Sinwar – National
Hamas confirmed on Friday that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and reiterated that the hostages the terrorist group took from Israel last year will not be released until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israel. troops.
The group’s stance backfired on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin’s statement the previous day that his country’s military would continue to fight until the hostages were released and would remain in Gaza to prevent a weakened Hamas from re-arming.
The conflicting situations show continued and deep resistance on both sides to end the current conflict, as US President Joe Biden and other world leaders are pressing the case that Sinwar’s death is a turning point that should be used to open the stalled ceasefire talks.
The escalation comes as Israel’s rivalry with Lebanon’s Hezbollah – which is allied with Iran-backed Hamas – has intensified in recent weeks.
Hezbollah said on Friday it plans to launch a new phase of combat by sending missiles and drones to Israel. The terrorist group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike late last month, and Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon earlier this month.
Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas, died “facing the regime until the last moment of his life,” said his Qatar-based deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, who represented Hamas during several ceasefire talks. Hamas will not return the hostages, al-Hayya said, “before the end of the violence in Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza.”
Hamas hailed Sinwar in a statement, calling him a hero for “not backing down, brandishing his weapon, engaging and confronting the leading army.”
The statement appeared to refer to a video the Israeli military released of Sinwar’s final moments in which the man sat in a chair in a heavily damaged building, badly damaged and covered in dust. In the video, the man raises his hand and throws a stick at an approaching Israeli jet.
Sinwar was the main architect of the Hamas attack on Israel last year that killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 250 others. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run, non-aligned health authority. the soldiers are from the common people but they say that more than half of the dead are women and children.
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The offensive has devastated the Gaza Strip, displacing nearly 90 percent of its 2.3 million people and leaving them struggling for food, water, medicine and fuel.
Sinwar’s killing was seen as an opportunity to meet with the Israeli military on Wednesday, and could change the tone of the conflict in Gaza as Israel pressures Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and airstrikes in other parts of the country.
Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel almost every day since the current Israel-Hamas conflict began, driving tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the north of the country. More than a million people in Lebanon have been displaced by Israeli bombings and ground attacks.
Iran, which also supports Hamas, hailed Sinwar Friday as a martyr who can inspire others to challenge Israel.
“We, and many others around the world, salute his selfless struggle to liberate the Palestinian people,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote on social media X. “The martyrs live forever, and the cause of Palestine’s liberation from its occupation is more alive than ever. “
Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas politically in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a military priority. But Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the killings Thursday night that “our fight is not over.”
Still, Israel’s allied governments and frustrated Gazans expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for a ceasefire.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sinwar’s death on Friday provided a “tremendous opportunity to achieve a lasting end” and suggested the US could play a role in helping stabilize Gaza in the future. “We hope that countries in the region will step up,” Austin said at a NATO meeting in Brussels.
The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgio Meloni, together with his counterpart in Lebanon, said that European countries are working for a “sustainable ceasefire” in that country and in Gaza. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said “a bureaucratic solution must prevail” over the fighting.
But a day after Biden called Sinwar’s death “an opportunity for a ‘next day’ in Gaza without Hamas in power,” he acknowledged it was difficult to broker a ceasefire there, saying it might be easier to negotiate a ceasefire. Lebanon.
“It’s going to be tough in Gaza,” Biden told reporters Friday after meeting European leaders in Berlin.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said it was “very close” to assessing who Hamas “might anoint as a successor to Sinwar and what that person might be willing to pursue.”
In Israel, families of hostages still being held in Gaza want the Israeli government to use Sinwar’s killing as a way to restart negotiations to bring their loved ones home. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says have died.
“We are in a situation where the objectives set for the war with Gaza have been achieved, all except the release of the hostages,”
Ronen Neutra, father of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, said in a video statement. Sinwar, who was described as the biggest obstacle to the deal, is no more.
Netanyahu was planning to call a special meeting on Friday to discuss the abduction talks, an Israeli official with knowledge of the talks said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
Israel’s military said on Friday it had allowed 30 trucks of food, water, medical supplies and other supplies into northern Gaza, as the country faced pressure from the US to increase aid. There was no immediate confirmation from the UN that aid had arrived and was being distributed in the north.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah issued a statement early Friday saying its forces had used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive aircraft against Israel for the first time in recent days.
The statement appears to be referring to an explosive-laden jet that intercepted Israeli multi-layered aircraft and crashed into a military training hall in central Israel last Sunday, killing four soldiers and injuring dozens. The group announced earlier this week that it had fired a new type of missile called the Qader 2 near the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Israel’s military said on Friday it would launch another patrol unit in the north of its country to support soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon. The Ministry of Health in Lebanon said that six people were killed in the past 24 hours in the fighting, bringing the number of dead last year to 2,418, a quarter of whom are women and children.
On Friday, Israel said its soldiers killed two soldiers who crossed into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea from neighboring Jordan. Such incursions are rare, especially since Israel has tightened border security since the October 2023 attack on Hamas.
Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporters Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Berlin contributed to this story.
