JERUSALEM (AP) – Hamas confirmed Friday that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and hostages taken from Israel by the extremist group a year ago are held hostages in Gaza as ceasefire takes hold. He reiterated his position that he would not be released until then. and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The organization’s firm position was in reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin’s statement a day earlier that Israeli forces would remain in Gaza to continue fighting until the hostages were freed and to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
Despite President Joe Biden and other world leaders insisting that Sinwar’s death be used as a turning point to break the deadlock in ceasefire negotiations, opposing sides argue that there is no way to end the war. This shows that both sides continue to maintain strong resistance.
The standoff comes as Israel’s war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Hamas, has escalated in recent weeks. Hezbollah announced Friday that it plans to send more guided missiles into Israel and detonate a drone to begin a new phase of the fighting. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike late last month, and Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon earlier this month.
Former Hamas leader Sinwar died “facing the occupation forces until the last moments of his life,” said Khalil al-Haya, a Qatar-based deputy who represented Hamas in several ceasefire negotiations. Ta. Al-Haya said Hamas would not return the hostages “until the invasion of Gaza ends and we withdraw from Gaza.”
Hamas praised Sinwar in a statement, calling him a hero who “did not retreat and brandished his weapon, engaging and confronting the occupation forces on the front lines.”
The statement appears to be a reference to a video circulated by the Israeli military showing Shinwar’s final moments. It shows a seriously injured man sitting on a chair in a badly damaged building, covered in dust. In the video, a man raises his hand and throws a stick at an approaching Israeli drone.
Mr. Sinwar was the chief architect of last year’s Hamas attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapping another 250. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliatory attacks in Gaza, local health authorities say, without distinguishing between fighters and Palestinians. More than half of the civilians killed were women and children.
The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, with about 90% of the country’s 2.3 million people displaced and struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Mr. Sinwar’s killing on Wednesday appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli forces, even as Israel ramps up its offensive against Hezbollah with ground forces in southern Lebanon and airstrikes in other parts of the country. This could change the dynamics of the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel almost every day since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the north. More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon by Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks.
Iran, which also supports Hamas, hailed Sinwar Friday as a martyr who could inspire others in challenging Israel.
“We, and countless others around the world, salute him for his selfless struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media platform X. “The martyrs live forever and the cause of liberating Palestine from occupation is more alive than ever.”
Israel had pledged to politically destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and killing Shinwar was a top military priority. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the killing Thursday night that “our war is not over yet.”
Still, Israel’s allied governments and exhausted Gaza residents expressed hope that Mr. Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday that Shinwar’s death represents a “unique opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire” and suggested the U.S. could help stabilize Gaza in the future. “We hope that regional countries will step up there,” Austin told a NATO conference in Brussels.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with her Lebanese counterpart and said European countries were working towards a “sustainable ceasefire” in both Lebanon and Gaza. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the fighting “must be overcome with a diplomatic solution.”
But a day after Mr. Biden called Mr. Shinwar’s death “an opportunity to welcome the ‘next day’ in Gaza, where Hamas is no longer in power,” Mr. Biden acknowledged the difficulty of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza and He said it might be easier to negotiate an end to the fighting in the area. Lebanon.
“It’s going to be even more difficult in Gaza,” Biden told reporters after meeting European leaders in Berlin on Friday.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said it was “too early” to assess who Hamas would appoint as “Sinwar’s successor and what that person would pursue.”
In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza have called on the Israeli government to use Mr. Sinwar’s killing as a means to restart negotiations to bring their loved ones home. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, and Israel says at least 30 of them have died.
Ronen Neutra, father of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, said in a video statement: “We are at a tipping point where all goals set for the war on Gaza will be achieved except for the release of the hostages.” said. “Mr. Shinwar, who was said to be a major obstacle to reaching an agreement, is no longer in this world.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to convene a special meeting on Friday to discuss hostage negotiations, according to an Israeli official familiar with the negotiations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had allowed 30 trucks loaded with food, water, medical supplies and other supplies to enter northern Gaza, as the country faces pressure to increase aid from the United States. There was no immediate confirmation from the United Nations that aid had arrived and been distributed to the north.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah issued a statement early Friday saying its warplanes had used new precision-guided missiles and explosive drones against Israel for the first time in recent days.
The statement came after an explosive-laden drone evaded Israel’s layered air defense system last Sunday and crashed into the mess hall of a military training camp deep in Israel, killing four soldiers and injuring dozens. It seems to have been mentioned. Earlier this week, the group announced it had fired a new missile called the Kader-2 into the Tel Aviv suburbs.
The Israeli military announced Friday that it would send an additional reserve brigade to the country’s north to support troops fighting in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed in fighting in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll over the past year to 2,418, a quarter of them women and children.
Israel announced on Friday that its forces had killed two militants who crossed into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea from neighboring Jordan. Such incursions are relatively rare, especially as Israel has tightened border security since the Hamas attack in October 2023.
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Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Bassem Mourou in Beirut, John Gambrell in Jerusalem and Josh Bork in Berlin contributed to this article.
