Hezbollah says Sinwar selection shows failure of Israel’s assassination policy
Hezbollah has congratulated Hamas on Sinwar’s appointment, portraying his elevation as a testament to the failure of Israel’s policy of assassinating Hamas leaders.
The Lebanon-based group said that Sinwar’s selection “confirms goals that the enemy [Israel] seeks from killing leaders and officials failed in achieving its outcome”.
Now, Israel must deal with Sinwar
Sinwar is elected leader of Hamas a week after the movement’s political chief Haniyeh was assassinated.
The 62-year-old strongman was already at the heart of power. Now, he calls all the shots, about peace and war.
Now, Israel must deal with Sinwar, a man it imprisoned for over two decades and then released in a prisoner exchange deal in 2011 that Netanyahu signed off on. After that, Sinwar – the son of refugees who grew up in a refugee camp in Khan Younis – was an unstoppable political actor.
A fierce foe for Israel, Sinwar is closer to the military wing of Hamas yet able to manoeuvre its multi-layered political ranks and become its leader during a ferocious war. Now, he is the lead negotiator of the faltering ceasefire talks regional and international mediators, including the Biden administration, desperately need to succeed.
Israel has only one intent for all Hamas leaders
Israel’s Foreign Minister says Sinwar’s appointment is more of an excuse to assassinate him.
In comments made to Arab media, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the only preparations and intentions that Israel is making for Sinwar are “the same fate as Mohammed Deif”, the Hamas commander who was allegedly killed on July 13.
Within the Israeli political landscape and Israeli media, there really isn’t a distinction between Hamas’s military and political leadership.
When the war on Gaza began, Netanyahu gave a directive that every single leader in Hamas – political or militarily – was one unit and that they were all going to be killed.
Why did Hamas elect Sinwar as its leader?
Yahya Sinwar faces huge challenges and a huge responsibility, especially at a time of war or genocide against his own people, while he is hiding in the tunnels in Gaza.
It’s very important to note that in the past six years, from 2017 to 2023, until the October 7 attacks, it was Sinwar who governed the Gaza Strip.
Gaza – a coastal enclave of 2 million people – was a well-run machine, despite the Israeli siege. Some people argue that it was better governed than the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, in terms of everything from water to sewerage and electricity to security and order, as well as education and healthcare.
For Israel, Sinwar is the devil incarnate. For the past 10 months, the Netanyahu government has assassinated his character so well that he is now known in the world as a sort of a new Hitler, because of the October 7 operation that he led.
But once again, what happens in Gaza is a reaction to Israel’s actions.
The election of Sinwar has come as a reaction to Haniyeh’s assassination. Reactions are in general not strategy, right?
And so much of what happens in Palestine comes as a reaction to the continuous Israeli oppression, occupation and colonisation, and – as of late – genocide. And the reaction by the Palestinians is electing a very defiant, a very steadfast leader who spent many years in Israeli jails. And who today, after 10 months of genocide, is even more popular among Palestinians than before.
Israel fails to realise assassination of Palestinian leaders does not work: Analyst
Rami Khouri, a non-resident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington, DC (ACW), said it is “bizarre” that Israel continues its campaign of assassination of Palestinian resistance leaders when the outcome is the opposite of what Israel intended.
“They’ve always assassinated senior leaders of Palestinian resistance movements whether it is the PLO, or Fatah or some of the other movement, PFLP [Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine], or the Hamas or Hezbollah,” Khouri told Al Jazeera.
“So, yes, they will probably try to assassinate more people. But it doesn’t do any good. It’s bizarre that the Israelis don’t see that when they assassinate somebody they get somebody more radical,” Khouri said.
“This is just what happened. When Haniyeh was assassinated Sinwar took over. Sinwar is generally seen to be a little more hardline,” he said.
“But the position of Hamas is not made by one person. It is made by a collective leadership that chooses these people and they have clearly, repeatedly made overtures towards Israel. Towards some kind of long-term truce – before the October 7 attack. And even since October 7, they’ve clearly agreed to go into ceasefire negotiations,” he added.
“The situation is one in which we need to have significant pressure on everybody – whoever is to blame – to accept these terms, get the ceasefire done, do the exchanges, and move on to the next phase which is going to be even more complicated – to govern Palestine and to possibly… lead to a negotiation for a permanent resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict.”
