Some Palestinians hope for end of the war

Some Palestinians in Gaza have expressed hope that the killing of Yahya Sinwar won’t be in vain and that it will put an end to their suffering.

“I really hope that Sinwar’s death will be the end of the war and that he will be a sacrifice for the Palestinian people, like the rest of the martyrs who fell,” said Rasmiya Khalil, a displaced woman now staying in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

“The world should at least sympathise with us as a people who want to live, including children and women. Help these people to live,” the 53-year-old added.

Her comments were in stark contrast with what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said soon after the Israeli army claimed the killing of Sinwar. He said that “the mission was not over” as dozens of captives are still believed to be inside Gaza – something that will likely drag the war further.

Some in Gaza skeptical about fallout from Sinwar’s killing

Some civilians in Gaza received the news of Sinwar’s claimed killing with sadness but also with pride, noting that his death would not translate into an end to the conflict.

“Sinwar is the only leader who said no to Israel, but his death does not mean stopping the war. Israel targets every child, woman and man in Gaza, and not just Sinwar,” said Hamza al-Kurd, 50, displaced from the north of Gaza to a makeshift camp in Deir el-Balah.

“Sinwar was a caring father to us. He was killed on the battlefield, engaged and fighting for his people and his land,” Salah Musleh, 30, said.

The Hamas leader’s killing “will not stop the war because it is a war on the Palestinian cause and Palestinian existence.”

Hamas could look to replace Sinwar with another military figure

Roxane Farmanfarmaian, a lecturer on international relations of the Middle East at the University of Cambridge, told Al Jazeera that some of the possible leaders who might take Yahya Sinwar’s place are more “hardline” than he was.

Others include more pragmatic figures such as Khaled Meshaal, the former head of Hamas’s political directorate, who is more of a “negotiation expert”, Farmanfarmaian said.

She said that since Hamas may have lost its military leader, her inclination is that it will probably choose another military leader rather than a political one at this stage, as the “fight is not over”.

Israeli army gives more information on claimed Sinwar killing

The Israeli army’s spokesperson Daniel Hagari has spoken to reporters about the killing of the Hamas leader.

Here are the key points of his news conference:

UNRWA the target of ‘disinformation campaigns’ related to Sinwar: Lazzarini

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has hit back at what he described as “disinformation campaigns” related to the agency on X.

In a post, he stated, “Once again, unchecked information is used to discredit UNRWA [and] its staff.” “Earlier today, reports circulated on social [and] Israeli media that an UNRWA staff member was killed together with the Hamas head in Gaza,” he wrote.

“I confirm that the staff member in question is alive. He currently lives in Egypt, where he travelled with his family in April through the Rafah border,” he said, adding it was “time to put an end to disinformation campaigns”.

Earlier this year, Israel alleged that some of the agency’s staff participated in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, leading more than a dozen international donors to suspend support. The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s accusations and dismissed nine staff, while the records of others were still being reviewed. However, most donors have since reinstated funding.

And, recently, the Israeli parliament introduced legislation that would effectively ban the organisation from operating in Israel.

No arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu, Gallant despite chief prosecutor’s request

The Israeli claim that Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed comes five months after chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC prosecutors said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant – as well as Hamas leader Sinwar, military chief Mohammed al-Masri (known as Mohammed Deif), and Hamas’s late political leader Ismail Haniyeh – bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in July in what Hamas and Iran say was an Israeli attack.

Israel has claimed to have killed Deif in an attack that killed 90 Palestinians in al-Mawasi in August, although there has not been any confirmation from Hamas.

I guess the ICC has to find some new Hamas leaders to issue warrants, got to keep both sideism going... Or they could grow some balls and issue warrants for Biden, Blinken and Scholz for complicity in genocide. Nah they'll probably never issue the warrants now. ICC is a joke, nothing but a tool of the oppressors. Karim Khan tried, but got blocked by the Israeli/US lobby.

Five Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon

While the world reacts to the apparent killing of Yahya Sinwar, the Israeli army has released a statement announcing the combat deaths of five of its soldiers in southern Lebanon.

The incident in which all five were killed, the army said, also saw the injury of three additional soldiers, one of whom was an officer. The army’s statement also mentions a total of nine other Israeli soldiers who were “seriously injured” in combat between southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

At least two killed in Israeli attack on eastern Lebanon: Ministry

An Israeli air raid on Yammoune, in the northwestern region of Baalbek, has killed at least two people and wounded nine others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Earlier today, Israel targeted several areas across eastern and southern Lebanon and the Israeli army issued new displacement orders.

According to a tally compiled by Al Jazeera, the Israeli army has over the past two weeks issued such orders for at least 233 villages – an area that the United Nations estimates covers a quarter of Lebanon’s territory.


_{A view shows a site damaged by an Israeli strike in Yammoune, in Baalbek district, Lebanon, Thursday, October 17}

‘UNIFIL on Lebanon’s front line of peace’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sent a message of solidarity to UN peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon after the Israeli army attacked their positions multiple times and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded their “temporary removal”.

“The men and women of UNIFIL are working to give our diplomatic efforts a fighting chance,” Guterres said.

“You are not just on the Blue Line in Lebanon, you are literally on the front line of peace,” he said, referring to the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel has fired on several front-line positions held by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) since it launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon in early October, claiming it aims to dismantle the infrastructure of Hezbollah.

Experts say Israel’s actions are meant to pressure the peacekeepers out of the country to have more control over the territory and less scrutiny over possible violations of international law.

Hezbollah’s ‘operations room’ releases new update. Here are the takeaways

In a statement attributed to its military “operations room”, the Lebanese group stresses that it is inflicting heavy losses on the Israeli army and fending off its ground advances in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been using such updates to underscore the recovery of its capabilities and structure after several of its top leaders, including its chief Hassan Nasrallah, were assassinated by Israel.

Here’s what the latest statement said:

Hezbollah says it targeted a group of Israeli soldiers

The group says it targeted Israeli soldiers with artillery shells after spotting them on the outskirts of the town of Kfar Kila in Lebanon. In a statement, it added that its forces bombed a gathering of Israeli soldiers on two occasions in the vicinity of the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab.

Wounded Palestinians rushed to hospital in Gaza City after Israeli strike


<sub>Palestinians wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza are brought to al Ahli Baptist Hospital for treatment in Gaza City


Deaths and injuries were reported in the attack</sub>

Death toll from Israeli strike on Maghazi camp rises to 10

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli air strike on a house that belonged to the Talibani family in the Maghazi camp in central, the Palestinian Civil Defence says.


_{Palestinians search among the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli air strikes in the Maghazi refugee camp, Gaza Strip, October 17}

Palestinians receive food donations amid aid shortage

_{Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, Oct, 17}

Main points on October 17

• The Israeli army says its forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in an operation in southern Gaza on Wednesday. Hamas has not commented on Sinwar’s alleged death.
• The Israeli military released a video purporting to show Sinwar in his last moments – his face wrapped in a scarf and his hand wounded as he throws a stick at a drone trying to down it.
• Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Sinwar’s killing is “not the end of the war in Gaza”, but “the beginning of the end”, as he and President Biden agree there’s now an opportunity to secure the release of captives.
• Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, with at least 28 Palestinians killed and 160 wounded in an attack on a UN school sheltering displaced people in northern Jabalia.
• At least two people have been killed and nine injured in Yammoune village in the Baalbek region as Israel’s assault on Lebanon continues, while Israel’s army has announced the death of five soldiers in the country’s south.

Are people in Gaza and Arab states that blind?. How can they praise someone who kills their own and uses his own people as shields. That's not a father, that's a murderer

They don't believe the propaganda you seem to belief.

If anything this assassination of Sinwar shows is, that he was not using his own people as shields. He wasn't near civilians nor hostages.

https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/why-palestinians-engage-in-armed-struggle/

What would you do?


Anyway Sinwar was radicalized by the occupation and went far too far in his tactics to get the Palestinian occupation back in the spotlight. Hopefully with him out of the way, a more level headed leader (like Ismail Hanniyeh was) will take over and get a ceasefire deal done. However it's more likely that the next radical military leader will take over since it's still war. Or worse, PIJ takes over Gaza.

EU’s Borrell says Sinwar was ‘obstacle’ to Gaza ceasefire

The EU’s foreign policy chief has described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as “an obstacle to an urgently needed ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages”.

“Yahya Sinwar was a terrorist, listed by the EU, responsible for the heinous 7/10 attack,” Josep Borrell wrote on X. “There must be an end to violence, liberation of hostages [and] stop to the suffering of Palestinians,” Borrell added.

Israeli forces reportedly assassinated Sinwar in southern Gaza during an operation on Wednesday. Hamas is yet to comment on his alleged killing.

Reported killing of Sinwar not ‘an opening’ for Israeli talks to end war on Gaza: Analyst

Hassan Mneimneh, a political analyst with the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera that speculation Israel’s Netanyahu may be more inclined to strike a ceasefire deal for captives with Hamas following the reported killing of its leader Yahya Sinwar was based on a false assumption.

“It’s based on the false premise that it was Hamas and Sinwar that stood in the way of an agreement,” Mneimneh told Al Jazeera.

“Everyone recognises – whether implicitly or explicitly – that it was Netanyahu’s decision, Israel’s decision not to accept any sort of an agreement that does not amount to the full surrender of Hamas,” he said.

“So this is why, at this point, to pretend that this is an opening [for talks with Hamas] – given that it is based on this false premise – is dishonest,” he said.

Israel Gaza: Hamas says it accepts ceasefire proposal, _{May 6 BBC}

Iran says Sinwar’s death will strengthen spirit of resistance

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the final moments of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar will be a model for resistance to Israel.

“When Muslims look up to the Martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield – in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy – the spirit of resistance will be strengthened,” the mission wrote in a post on X.

“He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forward his path towards the liberation of Palestine,” the mission said. “As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration,” it added.

Palestinian resistance will continue after Sinwar: Analyst

Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project and a former adviser in the Israeli government, said the killing of Sinwar will not end Palestinian resistance to their oppression by Israel.

“’This is like Osama bin Laden’ – that’s what the American president said. You kill a terrorist and everything goes happy ever after. But this is a resistance movement rooted in its people because its people are oppressed and denied their rights,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“This will continue and people will look at this and see someone, I imagine, who is a martyr who gives greater lustre to this cause of the Palestinians,” Levy said.

“Netanyahu did something else tonight. He leaned heavily into this idea that the Middle East region can now emerge out of the darkness. As if the darkness isn’t the destruction – of schools, hospitals, 40,000 lives, scorched earth, Gaza, West Bank, Beirut – that’s been caused by Israel,” he said.

“He is now saying we can remake some fantasy Middle East with an Israeli hegemony without Palestinians. This is not a person whose head is towards peace,” he added.

Well of course, all the assassinations of Palestinian leaders in the past have only led us to today. Hamas itself was created this way, and first supported by Netanyahu to take control away from Fatah. He knows damn well this will only strengthen the resistance, and therefore give him more excuses to keep destroying Gaza and killing more Palestinians (and Lebanese)

Halting US arms shipments to Israel, not killing Sinwar, will lead to Gaza ceasefire: Analyst

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and international adviser to Jewish Voice for Peace, told Al Jazeera the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will not lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.

“There has been a path to a ceasefire all along and it has to start with the US ending its shipment of arms that enables the war to continue,” Bennis told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t think that there is going to be any change if Blinken goes to the region or if Biden calls Netanyahu. None of that really matters. Their words don’t matter if their actions don’t change and if the actions continue to be sending Israel all of the weapons that they require to enable this war, this genocide to continue,” Bennis said.

“There is no reason in the world that they should see the death of one more Hamas leader – this time Yahya Sinwar – as a change. The war has been against the entire population of Gaza not against one man,” she said.

_{An Israeli battle tank looms over displaced Palestinians as they flee from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in January}

Reported killing of Sinwar neither intelligence based nor targeted assassination: Analyst

Elijah Magnier, a military and political analyst, said the Israeli and US characterisation of how Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was reportedly killed is far from the reality.

“It is not at all an intelligence operation nor a targeted assassination,” Magnier told Al Jazeera. “It’s a clash between three people, three militants who were in a location and opened fire against soldiers who are invading Rafah,” Magnier said.

Israeli forces “opened fire from their tank, destroying the location and this is how, the next day, they found Sinwar with another commander in a house above the ground and not in tunnels,” he said.

“Everybody is claiming victory, quoting intelligence collaboration … Shin Bet from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Kamala Harris saying we have been collaborating to make sure that we reach out and arrest or bring to justice all of the Hamas leaders, which has nothing to do with the reality of the event on the ground,” he added.

In Sinwar, Palestinians saw a ‘fighter battling until the very end'

Netanyahu’s message is the war will go on despite Sinwar’s assassination. We even heard opposition leader Gantz say Israel will remain in Gaza for many years. So there aren’t signals about ending the war, which is a message some tried to offer after Sinwar’s killing.

We have not heard from Hamas on who will replace Sinwar, who will be able to lead negotiations and deliver a deal with Israel.

Different reactions to Sinwar’s assassination were like watching parallel universes. You saw jubilation among Israelis at the killing of somebody they have placed at the centre of their rage for the October 7 attack.

Palestinians saw a fighter battling until the very end. They saw someone not in a tunnel, not assassinated while hiding. But they’re also concerned about what comes next. The fear in Gaza is this circle of hell is never-ending.

Nor hiding behind human shields or hostages nor in a school or hospital as the IDF is so keen to point out every chance they get.

US military chief hails Israel’s claimed killing of Hamas chief

General Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), has lauded Israel’s military for its claimed killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

In a post on social media, the CENTCOM commander congratulated the Israeli military and said US support “remains ironclad”. “Those who choose the path of terrorism should expect the same fate as Sinwar,” Kurilla added.

Starmer says Britain ‘won’t mourn’ Sinwar, Italy’s Meloni says death clears way for ‘new phase’

Britain’s Prime Minister said slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was the “mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust”, referring to the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

“Today my thoughts are with the families of those victims. The UK will not mourn his death,” Keir Starmer said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Sinwar’s killing by Israeli forces on Thursday paved the way for a “new phase” of the conflict.

“With the death of Yahya Sinwar, the person principally responsible for the October 7 attacks no longer exists,” she said. “I am convinced that a new phase should be launched: it is time for all the hostages to be released, for a ceasefire to be immediately proclaimed and for the reconstruction of Gaza to begin,” she added.

Berlin pushes for ceasefire after death of Hamas leader Sinwar

The death of Yahya Sinwar must lead to a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all remaining captives, spokespeople for the German government said.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had concluded during a meeting with her US counterpart earlier that “this could be a turning point in order to reach a ceasefire, free the hostages and get more aid into Gaza,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said during a regular news conference.

A government spokesperson said he could not comment on who might succeed Sinwar as the leader of Hamas, but “it is true that there must and should be a ceasefire and a solution to these issues.”

EU leaders discuss war in Gaza and Ukraine – fail to reach a consensus

EU leaders have called for an immediate end to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. The leaders also discussed a plan presented by Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, which he says will bring an end to the war with Russia.

Western leaders arming Israel speak of ‘momentum for ceasefire'

It is very clear that not only US President Joe Biden but also other leaders he’s meeting here today are all calling this momentum right now – the killing of Yahya Sinwar – a momentum for a ceasefire.

Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are also meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer . Also present is Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, who Biden said yesterday will go to Israel and the region very soon to speed up possible ceasefire talks.

And just an hour ago or so, the spokesperson of the White House, John Kirby, was slightly more optimistic. He said this is a unique momentum. He said Hamas is very much weakened right now and that Israel doesn’t have this immediate threat coming from Hamas militarily after Sinwar’s death.

Earlier, during a press conference, Scholz reiterated his fully support for Israel, saying Germany stands by Israel. It comes after saying a few days ago that his country will resume and remain sending weapons to Israel.

The US and Germany are the largest suppliers of weapons. So if there will be some kind of joint effort coming towards these ceasefire talks, we all have to see.