Israel has killed its ‘most wanted man,’ but not by design or elaborate plot. The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was an accidental assassination.
The mastermind of the October 7 atrocities was taken down in a chance encounter with Israeli forces in Rafah in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military released drone video taken after following three Hamas fighters fleeing into a building. The video showed a man sitting in a chair in a room wrecked by shelling. His face was covered with a cloth, possibly to hide his identity. The man with one wounded hand, threw a stick at the drone.
A tank then fired an additional shell at the building, causing it to collapse. The man dressed in combat gear and a bulletproof vest lay dead in the rubble. He was carrying grenades and 40,000 shekels (A$16,000).
The Israeli soldiers suspected it was Sinwar and that was soon confirmed following forensic tests from his DNA and dental records from his time in an Israeli prison.
It was Israel’s biggest victory so far in the war against Hamas and a serious blow for the terror group.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the start of the day after Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared.
But he made clear that however big a victory this was, it was not the end of the war.
He said Israel will keep fighting until all the hostages are free, and that it will keep control over Gaza long enough to ensure Hamas does not re-arm — which could be years.
US officials expressed renewed hopes of a ceasefire with Sinwar out of the picture.
President Joe Biden said his death opens the way for “a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
He said he would discuss with Mr. Netanyahu “the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said: “This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel.”
The head of Israel’s military, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said the pursuit of Sinwar over the past year had driven him “to act like a fugitive, causing him to change locations multiple times.”
The BBC reports Yahya Sinwar was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. He was five years old when it was captured by Israel from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war.
His family were among more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes by Israeli forces in the 1948 war in which Israel won its independence. They came from the town now known as Ashkelon, close to the northern border of Gaza.
In his 20s, he was convicted by Israel of killing 12 Palestinian informers. During 22 years in jail he learnt Hebrew, studied his enemy and believed that he worked out how to fight them.
Sinwar was released as one of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who were swapped in 2011 for a single Israel soldier, Gilad Shalit. That is believed to have convinced him of the value and power of taking hostages.
The death of Sinwar has cast a huge pall of uncertainty over the fate of the remaining hostages. Around 100 are still unaccounted for, and Israel has warned that only half of them may be still alive.
Their families are urging the Israeli government to launch a new negotiation to get them home.
One mother Einav Zangauker appealed to the prime minister: “Netanyahu, don’t bury the hostages. Go out now to the mediators and to the public and lay out a new Israeli initiative.”
“We have settled the score with the chief murderer Sinwar. But now, more than ever, the lives of Matan, my son, and the other hostages are in tangible danger. Time has run out. You have the victory pictures. Now bring a deal!”
Photo: Anas-Mohammed / Shutterstock.com
