Sinwar’s path of resistance will continue
Palestinian resistance group Hamas confirmed that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement on Friday, Hamas heralded Sinwar as a hero who “ascended as a heroic martyr, advancing and not retreating, brandishing his weapon, engaging and confronting the occupation army at the forefront of the ranks.”
The Palestinian group said it would take strength from the death of Sinwar.
“Yahya Sinwar and all the leaders and symbols of the movement who preceded him on the path of dignity and martyrdom and the project of liberation and return will only build our movement and resistance in strength,” Qatar-based official Khalil al-Hayya said in a video statement broadcast by Al Jazeera.
He also said Israeli captives held in Gaza will not return until war on Gaza stops and Israeli forces withdraw from the besieged and bombarded territory.
Hamas’s armed wing Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades vowed to keep fighting Israel until the “liberation of Palestine.”
“Our fight will not stop until Palestine is liberated, the last Zionist is expelled, and all our legitimate rights are regained,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
“The criminal enemy is delusional if he thinks that by assassinating the great leaders of the resistance such as Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, Al-Arouri and others, he can extinguish the flame of the resistance or force it to retreat. Rather, it will continue and escalate until the legitimate goals of our people are achieved.”
Sinwar was named the group’s paramount leader on August 6, as a successor to former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.
Sinwar has been in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since the start of the war.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar, 62, was elected as Hamas’ leader in Gaza in 2017.
The leader, who spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons, was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive following the assassination of Haniyeh.
Unstoppable crimes
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in a statement said Sinwar’s assassination is a clear sign of the unstoppable crimes of the “occupying and child-killing Zionist regime.”
Citing remarks by Haniyeh, Pezeshkian said that the Israeli regime should know that killings of resistance leaders will make no disruption in the resistance of the Islamic Ummah against oppression and occupation.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the leader of Hamas “bravely fought to the very end on the battlefield.”
“Yahya Sinwar did not fear death but sought martyrdom in Gaza,” the Iranian foreign minister wrote on X.
Araghchi said Sinwar’s fate was a “source of inspiration for resistance fighters across the region, Palestinian and non-Palestinian.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement mourned the killing of Hamas leader.
“We offer our deepest condolences,” the movement said in a statement, vowing to continue “support for our Palestinian people.”
Yemen’s Ansarullah movement also said on Friday they mourned Hamas leader following his killing by the Israeli military.
“My sincere condolences and great blessings to the Hamas movement and the dear Palestinian people for the great leader Yahya Sinwar receiving the medal of martyrdom,” a spokesman for the group wrote on X, adding that “Gaza and the Palestinian cause are destined for victory, no matter how great the sacrifices.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his killing a milestone but vowed to keep up the war.
“The war, my dear ones, is not yet over,” Netanyahu told Israelis late on Thursday, saying fighting would continue until hostages are released.
The US President Joe Biden said Sinwar’s death provides the opportunity for a “day after” in Gaza without the group in power. “Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists. But much work remains before us.”
The Kremlin said it was more concerned about the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and Lebanon.
“For us, the main thing is the consequences for civilians that we are seeing... The humanitarian catastrophe that is observed both in Gaza and in Lebanon is the subject of our serious concern,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.