Middle East: Israel says war not over after Sinwar death

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented further on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's death in English in a video posted online.

"While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end," Netanyahu said, paraphrasing British wartime leader Winston Churchill. 

"To the people of Gaza I have a simple message: This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages," he said. 

"Israel is committed to doing everything in our power to bring all of them home. And Israel will guarantee the safety of all those who return our hostages," he said. 

However, Netanyahu said that any who sought to harm the hostages would be hunted down and brought to justice. 

He also alluded to the series of Hamas and Hezbollah and Iranian figures killed in recent months by the Israeli military and said he had a "message of hope" for the people of the region. 

"The axis of terror that was built by Iran is collapsing before our eyes," he said.

"[Hezbollah's Hassan] Nasrallah is gone. His deputy Mohsen [or Fuad Shukr] is gone. [Hamas' Ismail] Haniyeh is gone. [Hamas' Mohammed] Deif is gone. Sinwar is gone." 

Netanyahu said Iran's "reign of terror" on its own people and the wider region would fade, and said all those seeking "peace and prosperity" for the region should join forces to achieve it.

DW spoke to Natasha Hall, a senior fellow specializing in the Middle East with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank, about the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and what it might mean.

She disputed the notion that killing the purported "mastermind" of the October 7 attacks meant that Hamas could no longer carry out something similar in the future. 

"No. I don't know how many times the United States needs to learn this lesson, but decapitating the leadership of a group with an ideology like Hamas does not destroy the group. They always regrow. They rebuild. This is the case with Hezbollah. This is the case with Hamas. This is the case with groups all over the world, if the drivers of conflict that they build from remain," Hall said. 

She said it was clear Hamas had been degraded and weakened, but also warned of the risks of a leadership vacuum, or even of more extreme leadership in the aftermath of the conflict in Gaza. 

"I think that [Hamas] are degraded, but they were degraded to begin with. Gaza has been completely annihilated, as have [the] Hamas leadership. So it's significantly degraded. But I would have to say if anyone has been paying attention to the news for the past year, I think whatever will grow instead will be far worse than Sinwar."

You can watch more of the interview conducted by Brent Goff here. 

US President Joe Biden landed for his delayed trip to Berlin late on Thursday, and welcomed the news of the death of  Hamas chief Yayha Sinwar.

He said it presented a chance for a new push for a hostage release and cease-fire agreement.

"Now's the time to move on," Biden said. "Move on, move towards a cease-fire in Gaza, make sure that we are moving in a direction that we're going to be able to make things better for the whole world."

Biden also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Air Force One flight. 

The White House said the two discussed "how to use this moment to bring the hostages home and to bring the war to a close with Israel's security assured and Hamas never again able to control Gaza."

Biden is in Berlin to talk about the war in Ukraine with leaders of Germany, France and the UK. He was meant to hold talks last week but canceled the trip amid Hurricane Milton.

But the new development, with Sinwar killed, is likely to feature on the agenda on Friday as well.

Biden told reporters in Berlin late on Thursday that he was going to send Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel for talks on bringing the hostages home.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Israel's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar offered an opportunity to end the war in Gaza.

"We must seize this opportunity to secure the release of all hostages and for an end to finally be brought to the war," Macron told reporters following anEU summit in Brussels. "We must put an end to military operations," he said. 

In a statement issued earlier in the evening following the news of Sinwar's death, Macron also wrote online that: "Yahya Sinwar was the main person responsible for the terrorist attacks and barbaric acts of October 7th."

"Today, I think with emotion of the victims, including 48 of our compatriots, and their loved ones. France demands the release of all hostages still held by Hamas," he said.

 

President Joe Biden said in a written statement that Sinwar's death marked a "good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world," comparing it to the feeling in the US after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Biden said he would soon speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them "and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all."

With Sinwar's death, Biden said, "there is now the opportunity for a 'day after' in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike."

Vice President andDemocratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said the killing of Hamas' top leader by Israel "gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.”

Speaking from a Wisconsin college campus where she was campaigning, Harris said the war "must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination."

"It is time for the day after to begin," she said.

Israeli opposition leader and former military chief Benny Gantz said killing Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, "sends a very clear message to our enemies: Israel will not rest until those who harm us pay for their crimes."

"The IDF will have to continue operating in Gaza for years, but this moment must be seized and leveraged to bring the hostages home and topple the Hamas regime," he said in a message on X.

"Thanks to the IDF, the world is now a safer, better place with Sinwar no longer in it."

Gantz, considered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main political challenger, resigned from the emergency war cabinet earlier this year.

He accused Netanyahu of putting his own personal political considerationsahead of a post-war strategy in Gaza.

A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza — The Hostages and Missing Families Forum — welcomed the news about Yahya Sinwar's death.

But the group added that families were still worried about the fate of their loved ones being held in Gaza.

"While acknowledging the significant achievement, the families of the hostages express grave concern for the fate of 101 men, women and children, still held captive by Hamas, and urge leveraging this major achievement into an immediate deal to secure hostages' return," the group wrote on X.

Families and supporters of the hostages also took to the streets of Tel Aviv calling for a deal to bring them home and end the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the death of Yahya Sinwar offered the chance of peace in the Middle East but warned that the war in Gaza was not over.

"Today we have settled the score. Today evil has been dealt a blow but our task has still not been completed," Netanyahu said in a recorded video statement.

"To the dear hostage families, I say: this is an important moment in the war. We will continue full force until all your loved ones, our loved ones, are home."

The German Foreign Ministry posted on X that Sinwar was a "brutal murderer and terrorist who wanted to destroy Israel and its people."

"As the mastermind of the terror on October 7, he brought death to thousands of people and immeasurable suffering to an entire region," the ministry wrote, attributing quotes to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

"Hamas must now immediately release all hostages and lay down its weapons; the suffering of the people in Gaza must finally end," it added.

Former Israeli intelligence official Avi Melamed told DW that the death of  Yahya Sinwar may raise hopes of bringing home Israeli hostages held by militants in Gaza.

"It may encourage the process of bringing hostages home" and "an end" to the war in Gaza, Melamed said. "But for the time being, it is an open question."

Melamed spoke to DW before Sinwar's death was confirmed.

The Hamas leader, Melamed said, has long played a role in"building" Hamas' military capacity over decades. While there were camps within the militant group that may have chosen a more pragmatic approach in terms of dealing with Israel, Sinwar "was able to dictate his will."

"Sinwar was a major obstacle for ending the war" in Gaza because he didn't move the slightest on the issue of releasing hostages, Melamed said.

As long as he was in power in Gaza, he was able to "intimidate" factions in Gaza that may have contemplated replacing him or moving toward "some sort of an agreement" with Israel, he added.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported in August that Sinwar had been open to cease-fire negotiations, but set the condition that Israel end its military operations in Gaza first.

Melamed said it would be "interesting to see the ramifications of what seems to be like the elimination of Sinwar."

Yahya Sinwar, one of the chief architects of Hamas' attack on Israel last year and the most wanted man by Israel's military, was killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza, the IDF said on Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar's killing a "military and moral achievement for the Israeli army," saying it would "create the possibility to immediately release the hostages."

Read the full story about the strike that killed Sinwar here.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Egyptian President  Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi and other officials in Cairo for talks on de-escalating the conflicts in the Middle East, according to an Egyptian statement. 

It is the first visit by an Iranian foreign minister to Egypt in almost 12 years. 

The statement from El-Sissi's office said the pair discussed "the need to stop regional escalation" and "intensifying efforts toward cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon," where Israel is at war with the Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

There have been fears the conflict could expand even further after Israel vowed to retaliate for a barrage of missiles fired by Iran earlier in October.

Egypt has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is looking into the possibility that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in an operation in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the IDF said it killed three militants in the operation, but added that "the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed."

"The IDF and ISA [Israeli Security Agency] are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar," it said.

The Israeli military said there were no signs of Israeli hostages in the building where the militants were killed.

"The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution," it said.

There was no immediate response from Hamas.

Sinwar is considered to be the mastermind behind the terror attack on Israel in October 2023 that triggered the Gaza war.

Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah says the Israeli military has not managed to take control of any villages in southern Lebanon since launching its ground offensive there more than two weeks ago.

However, Israeli media said on Thursday that it had taken the village of Aita al-Shab on Thursday, just across the line of demarcation with Israel. Israeli TV Channel 12 released a video showing the Israeli flag flying on a tower surrounded by damaged buildings.

Fadlallah told reporters that Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, would keep fighting "with all available means" to prevent Israel from achieving its goals. 

He also said the group was working with the speaker of Lebanon's parliament to secure a cease-fire.

"Our goal today is to end the aggression. We will not go into any detail related to the mechanism or solutions," the legislator said.

Israel says it has killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and seized thousands of weapons since it began its offensive in Lebanon. 

The entire Gaza Strip is experiencing emergency levels of hunger, with Israeli military operations in the enclave hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, a UN-backed global monitor said.

Analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that around 1.84 million people in Gaza, or 86% of the population, were facing high levels of food insecurity. That included 133,000 people living with "catastrophic" levels of hunger.

The monitor warned that the number could rise to 345,000 this winter.

"One year into the conflict, the risk of famine persists throughout the whole Gaza Strip as conflict intensifies and winter approaches," the IPC said in its report.

The recent "sharp decline" in aid "will profoundly limit the ability of families to feed themselves and access essential goods and services in the coming months, unless reversed," it added.

The US warned Israel this week that it would cut off military support unless it does more to boost access to humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Israel has said it is acting in accordance with international law and facilitating aid deliveries. It has also accused aid groups and the UN of failing to deliver the aid, and blamed Hamas for stealing supplies.

The IPC was set up in 2004 and is an initiative involving UN agencies, national governments and aid groups.