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- Author, Editor
- Author’s title, BBC News World
- October 17, 2024
Updated 3 hours
Israel announced this Thursday the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an attack by its troops in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza.
The Israeli offensive ended the lives of two other militants of the Palestinian Islamist organization.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death opens the possibility of ending the Iranian-led “axis of evil” in the region, as well as the release of the 101 hostages still held by Hamas. .
“We have a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future. A future of peace, a future of prosperity for the entire region,” he said in a televised speech.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the beginning of the day after Hamas,” he added.
Shortly before Netanyahu’s speech, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had confirmed that Israeli soldiers had killed Sinwar.
“This is a significant military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the axis of evil of radical Islam led by Iran,” Katz said in a statement.
He added that “the elimination of Sinwar opens the possibility of the immediate release of the hostages and paves the way for a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza, without Hamas and without Iranian control.”
Katz described the late Hamas leader as the “mastermind behind the massacre and atrocities” of October 7, 2023.
image captionSinwar’s death is seen as a serious blow to Hamas
Yahya Sinwar, 61, was Israel’s number one target in Gaza and was believed responsible for organizing and directing those attacks, in which thousands of gunmen crossed the border from Gaza, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping more than 250.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign against Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people.
The identification of the body of the Hamas leader took several hours since images of a person with clearly fatal injuries were published this Thursday in the rubble of a building after intense military activity.
His death is considered an important military success for Israel, which on July 31 ended the life of his predecessor, the until then president of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniya.
In his televised speech, Netanyahu said that Sinwar’s death shows that the Israel Defense Forces were correct in their military campaign in Gaza and, especially, in insisting on the need to be able to act in Rafah.
“It is now clear to everyone, in Israel and in the world, why we insist on not ending the war, why we insist in the face of all pressure on entering Rafah, the fortified stronghold of Hamas, where Sinwar and many of the killers are they were hiding,” he said.
The president called on those holding Israelis hostage to release them and lay down their weapons, promising to allow them to “go away and live.”
“The return of the hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our objectives and something that brings the end of the war closer,” he noted.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the capture or elimination of Sinwar was a priority objective for Israel.
As BBC journalist Lucy Williamson explains: “Many said Netanyahu’s promise of ‘total victory’ over Hamas was militarily flawed, but it was also politically impossible with Yahya Sinwar alive and in charge. Sinwar’s death could open a way for Israel’s leader to declare victory, and even a formal end to the war.
Photo caption, After learning of Sinwar’s death, the relatives of those kidnapped asked for his release and an end to the conflict.
“He was fleeing and we killed him”
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that Sinwar was killed after Israeli forces identified three “terrorists” running from house to house in the Tal El area. Sultan in Rafah.
Hagari presented a video that he said shows Sinwar being approached by an IDF drone, masked and with a wound on his hand.
The footage shows how the man, who is sitting in an armchair on the second floor of a practically destroyed house, throws what appears to be a stick at the drone and the video ends.
According to Hagari, Sinwar was found with a gun and about US$10,700 (40,000 shekels).
“He was fleeing and we killed him,” he points out.
The Israeli military spokesman indicated that the IDF had seen traces of where Sinwar had been previously and that traces of his DNA had been found in a tunnel near where six hostages were murdered a few weeks ago.
Defender of armed confrontation
image captionYahya Sinwar was Israel’s main target in Gaza
Sinwar, who was already the leader of Hamas in Gaza, also assumed political leadership after Haniya’s death, becoming the most powerful man in the organization considered terrorist by the United States, the European Union and part of the international community.
After being released from an Israeli prison as part of a prisoner exchange in 2011, he became a hardline leader with great influence in Hamas.
He stood out for being a supporter of armed confrontation with Israel over diplomatic initiatives.
According to experts, Sinwar would have spent much of the war in tunnels under Gaza surrounded by a human shield of Israeli hostages, especially after becoming the overall leader of Hamas following the assassination of Ismael Haniya.
However, according to reports from the Israel Defense Forces, no hostages were found near the place where he was killed.
image captionHamas was one of Hamas’s hardline exponents.
A provocative, incisive and threatening man
Rushdi Abualouf, BBC Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul
I met Yahya Sinwar four times. Each time, he was surrounded by tight security.
He traveled in a convoy of three identical cars without license plates, but often interacted with dignitaries, officials, activists and journalists.
Sinwar was always brusque, strong, incisive, provocative and often threatening when defending his position on attacks on Israel.
However, in his personal interactions he displayed a friendly demeanor. Despite his charisma, many within the movement viewed him unfavorably due to his tough approach.
He made no secret of his close ties to Iran, actively participating in events in Gaza to honor Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed by the United States in Iraq in 2020.
Since he was freed from Israeli prison in 2011, as part of a prisoner exchange deal involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he has only ventured out of Gaza a few times.
Sinwar made no secret of his differences with the Hamas leadership abroad, and it is widely believed that he did not keep them informed about the details of the October 7 attack.
Photo caption, In a few weeks Israel has killed the leaders of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah (left), and that of Hamas, Sinwar.
Experts believe that, although Sinwar’s death is a hard blow for Hamas, the organization will continue fighting the war against Israel.
Israel, for its part, has insisted until now that it will not stop attacking until it achieves all its war objectives, which include the military and political destruction of Hamas and the return of the kidnapped hostages on October 7, 2023.
After the news of Sinwar’s death was confirmed, US President Joe Biden said it was a good day for Israel, for the United States and for the world. He stressed that this event presents an opportunity to end the war and achieve the return of the kidnapped Israelis.
The White House announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas were still close to reaching a ceasefire agreement, despite growing fears of a regional war in the wake of the July 31 assassination of Ismail Haniya in Tehran.
Mediation efforts made their biggest breakthrough in November 2023, when both sides agreed to a temporary four-day humanitarian truce that was extended for two more days.
This allowed the release of 50 women and minors under 19 kidnapped by Hamas in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and minors detained in Israeli prisons.
Since then both sides have continued at war and no significant progress has been made towards peace negotiations.
A hard strategic blow for Hamas
Rushdi Abualouf, BBC Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul
Sinwar’s disappearance from the Gaza scene is the biggest strategic loss for Hamas so far.
Anyone who has followed this man’s career since his release from Israeli prison in 2011 knows that he directed the political and military apparatus of the organization and controlled all the centers of power.
It was he who used to appoint the head of the Hamas governing committee that runs Gaza and who appointed the leaders of the military wings of Hamas battalions in cooperation with his brother Mohamed, who heads the organization’s strongest armed battalions in the south of the Strip.
Because of this, Hamas will find it difficult to recover quickly after the successive blows it has received and find a solid alternative to fill the void left by Sinwar’s absence.
In the past, Hamas was forced to withhold the name of its overall leader for security reasons. This option was on the table after the assassination of Ismael Haniya, and may now be seriously considered again.
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