By Desmond Nleya
Sinwar was Israel’s most wanted man, and his death – announced by the Israeli military on Thursday – deals a major blow to the already weakened group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.
While it did not spell the end of the war, it was “the beginning of the end”, he added.
Reactions to death of Sinwar
Some hailed the news of Sinwar’s death as a sign of better things to come.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said Sinwar’s death was “an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas”.
In a joint statement, Biden and the leaders of Germany, France and Britain emphasised “the immediate necessity to bring the hostages home to their families, for ending the war in Gaza, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians”.
Former US president Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in elections next month, said Sinwar’s death would make it “easier” to achieve peace.
Sinwar
According to the Israeli military, Sinwar met his end at the hands of a routine patrol on Wednesday.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged Israel’s government and international mediators to leverage “this major achievement to secure hostages’ return”.
In August, Netanyahu called Sinwar “the only obstacle to a hostage deal”.
Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of killed hostage Yoram Metzger, said with Sinwar dead it was “unacceptable” that the hostages would “stay in captivity even one more day”.
But she added: “We (are) afraid that Netanyahu does not intend on stopping the war, nor does he intend to bring the hostages back.”
Sinwar died of gunshot to head
An Israeli autopsy found that Sinwar was initially wounded in the arm by shrapnel, but killed by a gunshot to the head, the New York Times reported.
The Times said it was unclear who fired the shot or when, or what weapon was used.
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This screen grab from a handout video released by the Israeli army on October 17, 2024, shows what it says is a drone footage of the building where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was present moments before he was killed, in the neighbourhood of Tal Al Sultan in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Image Credit: AFP
How Israeli forces killed Sinwar
An Israeli autopsy found that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by a gunshot to the head, the New York Times reported on Friday.
Dr Chen Kugel, who oversaw the autopsy, told the newspaper that Sinwar was first wounded in the arm by shrapnel, maybe from a missile or tank shell.
The Hamas leader then tied an electric cable around his arm in an apparent makeshift tourniquet, but Kugel – the director of Israel’s national forensic institute – said “it wasn’t strong enough, and his forearm was smashed.”
Kugel said a gunshot killed Sinwar, but the Times noted that it is unclear who fired the shot, when they did so and what weapon was used.
According to the Israeli military, Sinwar met his end at the hands of a routine patrol on Wednesday.
It said a group of soldiers of the 828th Brigade (Bislach) was moving through the city of Rafah when it came across three Palestinian militants. As the soldiers chased them, Sinwar split from the other two, the military said.
Israeli forces later fired with a tank at the building where two of the militants hid and the other where Sinwar took cover, it said.
Israeli media and military officials said there was no prior intelligence pointing to Sinwar’s presence in the area.
Footage released by the Israeli military showed Sinwar covered in dust sitting in an armchair staring down a drone as the device entered the house devastated by strikes.
The grainy footage showed Sinwar alone with one hand severely injured and his head covered in a traditional scarf, throwing a stick at the approaching drone during his final moments.
The Israeli military conducted DNA testing along with dental examinations and other forensic enquiries that helped confirm Sinwar’s identity.
Sinwar bodyguard killed
The Israeli army said the bodyguard of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was killed by its forces in southern Gaza, close to where the militant leader died two days earlier.
“Today (Friday), Mahmoud Hamdan was eliminated by the IDF (military) during an encounter with IDF troops, approximately 200 meters (yards) from the spot where Sinwar was eliminated,” the army said in a statement.
It said that Hamdan was responsible for guarding Sinwar and was also the commander of Hamas’s Tal al-Sultan Battalion. The announcement comes a day after the military said it killed Sinwar during a firefight in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Wednesday.
Who could replace Sinwar?
Hamas is likely to name Khalil Al Hayya as a successor to slain leader Yayha Sinwar, aligning it closer to Iran and giving its main backer more sway in the next stage of the group’s war with Israel.
“The next leader will almost certainly come from the movement’s leadership in Doha,” wrote Ghaith Al Omari and Neomi Neumann, senior fellow and visiting fellow respectively at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Al Hayya would “likely seek to continue Sinwar’s path both in the Gaza war front and in staying close to Iran,” they said.
Al Hayya gave a televised speech on Friday, suggesting he is assuming the leadership role, at least on an acting basis. He vowed to use Israel’s killing of Sinwar this week as motivation to continue fighting, saying the hostages “will not return to you unless the aggression on Gaza stops.” Israel must withdraw from Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails should be released, he said.
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Hamas has been fighting Israel in Gaza since its Oct. 7 attacks on the south of the country, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s subsequent campaign has killed more than 42,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, and devastated the Palestinian territory.
“We will keep our oath to you Abu Ibrahim and your banner won’t fall,” said Al-Hayya, referring to Sinwar as he was widely known.
Although Al Hayya is seen as more of a political leader, he’s still regarded as part of the same Gaza-based military team that works closely with Iran and masterminded and executed the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Those leading the battle are members of this wing that’s close to Iran and liaises directly with it,” said Hassan Abu Haniyeh, an expert and commentator on militant Islam based in Jordan. He said Hamas may choose not to immediately nominate Al Hayya as the official successor so as not to put a target on his back right away.
‘Hell on Earth’
Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
During the attack, militants took 251 hostages back into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.
Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages has killed 42,500 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.
Israeli hostages
File photo: A man walks past a giant billboard featuring portraits of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants, in Jerusalem on November 25, 2023.
Image Credit: AFP
A “conservative” estimate puts the death toll among children in Gaza at over 14,100, said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
For the one million children in the besieged territory, “Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth”, Elder said.
Criticism has been mounting over the civilian toll and lack of food and aid reaching Gaza, where the UN has warned of famine.
‘Devastation’ in Lebanon
Israel is also fighting a war with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The two sides had exchanged rocket fire since the October 7 attack, with Israel sending ground troops across the Lebanese border last month.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had destroyed Hezbollah’s regional command centre with an air strike.
Hezbollah said it fired a salvo of rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa and areas to its north.
The group later said it launched “a swarm of explosives-laden drones” at an “air missile defence base” east of the central Israeli city of Hadera.
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A man holds his crutches as he reacts in front amid the destruction a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on October 17, 2024.
Image Credit: AFP
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon warned that the escalating war was “causing widespread destruction of towns and villages” in the country’s south.
Since late September, the war has left at least 1,418 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.
The war has also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
The Israeli military on Friday said it had intercepted an “aerial target” approaching from Syria, which a war monitor said was a drone launched by an Iran-backed group.
The army reported another drone crossing into Israeli territory from Syria early Saturday, saying it had fallen without causing injuries.
Iran conducted a missile strike on Israel on October 1, for which Israel has vowed to retaliate.
Iran, Hezbollah, Afghanistan’s Taliban government and Yemen’s Houthi rebels all mourned the death of Sinwar, vowing continued support for their Palestinian ally Hamas.
Source: Gulf News
