Israel vows to find and eliminate new Hamas leader

Jerusalem. Israel vowed Wednesday to eliminate Hamas’ new leader, whom it accuses of masterminding the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza, named after the assassination in Iran of his predecessor that has brought the Middle East to a head.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed Ismail Haniyeh, but Iran and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, blamed Israel and vowed to avenge it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that his country is “determined” to defend itself and is prepared “both defensively and offensively.”

Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi vowed to “find” and eliminate Sinwar.

“We will do our best to find him, attack him and have him replaced as head of Hamas’s political committee,” the soldier said.

Israel accuses Sinwar, 61, of being one of the masterminds behind the deadly Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which sparked the war in Gaza. Sinwar has not appeared in public since that day.

A senior Hamas official told AFP that Sinwar’s election sends a message that the movement is “following the path of resistance.”

Hours before Haniyeh’s assassination, a bombing claimed by Israel killed Fuad Shukr, the military commander of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and backed by Iran, in a Beirut suburb.

The two attacks have brought the region to a head and threaten to spread the conflict in Gaza, which has left nearly 40,000 dead in the narrow Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.

Hezbollah vows retaliation

Hezbollah and Iran are “obliged to retaliate,” said Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese armed movement, on Tuesday.

Hezbollah congratulated Sinwar, saying his appointment reaffirms that “the enemy (…) has not achieved its objectives.”

The international community is racing against time to try to calm the situation and relaunch negotiations with a view to a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.

Diplomatic contacts are increasing, especially between the countries mediating the conflict in Gaza: the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

Antony Blinken, head of US diplomacy – Israel’s main ally – has for the first time publicly called on Iran and Israel to avoid a military “escalation”.

The head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, said the “heinous” assassination of Haniyeh “increases tensions and leads to the conflict taking on larger dimensions and involving the entire region.”

“How can the negotiations proceed?”

Sinwar’s appointment has cast doubt on the prospects of a Gaza truce, although the United States said on Wednesday that one was “closer than ever.”

“There’s a good proposal for both sides and they both need to accept it so we can implement it,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

In the Gaza Strip, many residents are pessimistic.

Sinwar, who spent 23 years in Israeli jails and was a member of Hamas’s armed wing, “is a fighter. How can negotiations take place?” one of them, Mohamed al-Sharif, told AFP.

Other Gazans, however, believe that ceasefire talks could gain momentum under Sinwar, who is said to be living in the Palestinian territory, unlike Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar.

“I hope this will speed up the end of the war, as Sinwar lives in the Gaza Strip, among the besieged population,” says Hani al Qani.

The war broke out on October 7, when Islamist militants killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an Israeli tally based on official figures. More than 300 soldiers were among the dead.

They also took 251 hostages, of whom 111 are still held in Gaza, although 39 of them are believed to have died, according to the Israeli army.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has so far left 39,677 dead, according to the Ministry of Health of this territory governed by Hamas since 2007, which does not detail the number of civilians and combatants killed.

Israel has been on alert for almost a week, awaiting the promised response from Iran and its allies.

In Lebanon, residents are trying to flee the southern suburb of the capital where Israel killed Shukr, a Hezbollah stronghold, but apartment prices in safer areas have soared.

“We are with the resistance [Hezbolá] “I’m afraid of the situation, and I …

Several countries have asked their citizens to leave Lebanon and some airlines have suspended flights to Beirut.