JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel conducted raids on Gaza yesterday, pressing its year-long war to crush Hamas after dealing it a massive blow with the killing of its leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Hailing the killing of Sinwar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack was not over, but added that it was “the beginning of the end”.
He called the death of Sinwar, mastermind of the deadliest attack in Israeli history, an “important landmark in the decline of Hamas”.
Chief of Hamas in Gaza at the time of the attack, Sinwar had become the militant group’s overall leader after the killing in July of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas has not confirmed the death of Sinwar, but a senior official in the group said Israel could not defeat it by killing its leaders.
“Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated,” Hamas’ political bureau member Basem Naim told AFP, stopping short of confirming Sinwar’s death.
In central Gaza, Palestinian man Ali Shameli said that “now that Sinwar has been killed, we hope that the war will stop” as the Israelis “have no reason to continue”. But another Gaza resident, Amal Abzal, said the death of Sinwar, who “had the power to stop the war… means destruction for the Gaza Strip”.
