Hamas official confirms leader’s death, while Hezbollah promises new phase of war with Israel

Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City on April 13, 2022. AP Photo/Adel Hana, file

JERUSALEM – Hamas confirmed Friday that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and the militant group reiterated its position that hostages taken from Israel a year ago will not be released until a ceasefire is in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops.

“These prisoners will not return to you until the aggression against Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza is ended,” Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s Qatar-based envoy and head of the group’s delegation, said during several rounds of negotiations on a ceasefire. mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt.

In a statement, Hamas heralded Sinwar as a hero who “rose like a heroic martyr, advancing and not retreating, brandishing his weapon, addressing and confronting the occupying army at the forefront of its ranks.”

The statement appeared to refer to a video the Israeli army distributed of Sinwar’s apparent final moments, showing a man sitting on a chair in a badly damaged building, badly injured and covered in dust. In the video, the man raises his hand and throws a stick at an approaching Israeli drone.

Sinwar’s killing, in what appeared to be a chance frontline encounter with Israeli forces on Wednesday, could change the dynamics of the Gaza war, even as Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and airstrikes in other parts of the country. . Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel almost every day since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, which has praised Sinwar as a martyr who can inspire others to challenge Israel.

Israel has pledged to politically destroy Hamas in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. Photos apparently taken by Israeli forces at the scene show the body of a man who appeared to be him half-buried in the rubble and with a gaping wound in his head.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening in a speech announcing the killing that “our war has not ended.”

But many, from the governments of Israel’s allies to the exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.

In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded that the Israeli government use Sinwar’s killing as a way to resume negotiations to bring their loved ones home. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.

“We are at a turning point where the goals for the war with Gaza have been achieved, all but the release of the hostages,” Ronen Neutra, father of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, said in a video statement. “Sinwar, who was described as a major obstacle to a deal, is no longer alive.”

Netanyahu planned to convene a special meeting on Friday to discuss the hostage negotiations, an Israeli official with knowledge of the negotiations said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations released a statement honoring Sinwar, stressing that he died on the battlefield and not in hiding, unlike former enemy Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was hanged in 2006.

“When American forces dragged a confused Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him, even though he was armed. Those who viewed Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed,” the statement said. “However, when Muslims look up to the martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield – in combat clothes and in the open, not in a shelter, facing the enemy – the spirit of resistance will be strengthened.”

More than a million people on both sides were killed during the brutal Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, which began when Hussein launched an invasion of Iran.

In Lebanon, the militant Hezbollah group, which has fired rockets into Israel since the Gaza war broke out last October, issued a statement early Friday saying its fighters have used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive drones against Israel in the battle against Israel. first time in the last few days.

Hezbollah’s statement appeared to refer to an explosives-laden drone that evaded Israel’s multi-layered air defense system and crashed into a dining hall at a military training camp deep in Israel last Sunday, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.

The group also announced earlier this week that it fired a new type of missile, called Qader 2, at the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli army said it would activate an additional reserve brigade in the north of its country to support troops in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its fighters are working according to “pre-prepared plans” to battle invading Israeli forces in several parts of southern Lebanon. It also announced several rocket and artillery attacks on Israeli forces operating in villages in the border area of ​​southern Lebanon overnight and Friday morning.

In one case, the group said it fired a heavy rocket barrage at Israeli soldiers trying to evacuate the wounded from an earlier attack. The group also said it had fired “large salvos of rockets” at a military barracks on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and the Zvulun area north of Haifa.

Earlier this week, Hezbollah’s acting leader Naim Kassem warned that the group will continue to target wider areas of Israel, which it has attacked with rockets almost every day since Hamas’s deadly raid last year.

As Israel battled militants in Lebanon and Gaza, the army said Friday that its forces had killed two militants who crossed into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea from neighboring Jordan.

Such infiltrations are relatively rare, especially as Israel has stepped up border security since the Hamas attack in October 2023.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. who do not distinguish fighters from civilians. The war has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced about 90% of the population of 2.3 million people.

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Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed

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