Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had “settled accounts with him”, but stressed that “the task before us (Israel) is not yet finished”.
Netanyahu said Israel was focused on returning the more than 100 hostages still in Gaza, captured during the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, a third of whom are believed to have died.
“This is an important moment in the war,” Netanyahu told the hostages’ families, according to the Reuters news agency. “We will continue full force until all your loved ones, who are also our loved ones, return home. This is our supreme obligation. It is my supreme duty.
President Biden said Sinwar’s death after nearly two decades of Hamas rule in Gaza was good news, “for Israel, for the United States and for the world.” He and other senior U.S. officials said it should bring new hope for a ceasefire in the year-long war.
Speaking in Germany on Friday, Mr. Biden said he told Netanyahu that Sinwar had blood on his hands, adding: “Let’s also make this moment an opportunity” for peace.
But Hamas did not mention any new push for a ceasefire deal with Israel following the assassination of its leader.
“It seems that Israel thinks that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people,” Dr. Basem Naim, a member of the political bureau of the US- and Israeli-designated terrorist group, said on Friday. , in a press release. “They can believe whatever they want, and it’s not the first time they’ve said that.”
“Hamas has grown stronger and more popular every time, and these leaders have become an icon for future generations to continue the journey to a free Palestine,” Naim said.
The assassination of Sinwar, commander-in-chief of Hamas in Gaza since 2017 and general leader of the group since August, was a blow to Hamas. Hamas spokesman Ismael al-Sawarta told CBS News in Gaza on Thursday that his death “would complicate the situation, because he was the key to the negotiations and he was the political leader of Hamas.”
But he added: “I don’t think his death will have an impact or change the war, because the Palestinian resistance is not led by an individual, but it is an institution. »
Hamas deputy leader Khalil al-Hayya confirmed Sinwar’s death in a televised speech on Friday and said the group would continue on the same path. Al-Hayya said Hamas would not release the remaining hostages without a ceasefire agreement and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
The three Hamas officials noted that the group continued its fight against Israel after the assassination in late July of its previous political leader. Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. Israel has killed numerous senior members of Hamas and its powerful ally Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent months – but he continues to fight both groups conflicts that have killed tens of thousands of people people, mostly civilians.
Many Israelis rejoiced over Sinwar’s death, gathering Thursday on beaches and even in front of the laboratory where his remains were identified to sing and dance.
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty
But not everyone in the country was celebrating, and many did not seem to share the hope that his assassination could mark a turning point for the war or for their lost loved ones.
At a rally outside the Defense Department for hostages still held in Gaza, families and supporters told CBS News they feared Hamas militants could now kill those who survived more than a year in captivity.
Asked if she thought Israel was actually closer to peace, or perhaps further after Sinwar’s killing, a woman at the rally who only gave her first name, Ariella, disagreed. not sure.
“I don’t know. I wish I knew,” she told CBS News. “I want it to be closer to peace. I really want them to come back. I want everything to be okay again.
Among the hostages still in Gaza is Omer Neutra, a 23-year-old Israeli-American. His parents Orna and Ronen have just celebrated their son’s birthday – without him, for the second time.
“It’s just incomprehensible that this is his second birthday in captivity,” Orna said. “We really, really hope that this nightmare will finally end for us… We are still stuck on October 7; A long nightmarish day.
Israel launched its war in Gaza in immediate response to the Hamas terrorist attack, which killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. This war has now killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, injured nearly 100,000 people and displaced almost all of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents, according to the health ministry of the pro-government enclave. Hamas.
And despite Mr. Biden’s remarks suggesting a new opportunity to promote peace, the Israeli military continued Friday to intensify its operations in northern Gaza.
Palestinians in Gaza, who have lived under constant bombardment for a year and been repeatedly displaced, expressed little optimism to CBS News.
“It won’t change anything,” one woman said of Sinwar’s death. “Someone else will replace him. God willing, the war will end and we will return home.