Jerusalem, Oct 17 (EFE).- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday the death of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in southern Gaza marks the “beginning of the end” of the war, as his government released footage of the militant in his final moments.
Sinwar was widely considered the mastermind of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 others kidnapped, and was the most wanted man in Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In a video statement, Netanyahu announced the Wednesday killing of Sinwar in southern Gaza’s Rafah city.
“While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end,” he said.
“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,” Netanyahu added, saying 101 hostages of 23 nationalities remain in the enclave.
Meanwhile, the IDF published a video taken by a drone on Thursday that it claims shows Sinwar in his final moments.
The drone enters a shelled building through a second-floor window where a man is seen sitting on a chair with his head and face wrapped in cloth and with a severely injured right arm. He flings a wooden stick towards the drone as it films him.
“Yesterday, in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, our forces spotted three terrorists running from one house to another in an attempt to escape, and we engaged them and attacked the terrorists. Yahya Sinwar fled alone to one of the buildings, where our forces surveyed the area using a drone,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X.
“In his final moments, Sinwar was seen masked and throwing a wooden plank at the drone. After identifying him as a terrorist inside the building, we opened fire on the building and conducted a sweep. We found him wearing a bulletproof vest, with a gun and 40 thousand shekels” ($10,707).
Earlier Thursday Israel’s military and security agency confirmed the death of the Hamas leader, while IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “for the past year, Sinwar tried to escape justice. He failed. We said we would find him and bring him to justice, and we did.”
“It was Yahya Sinwar who decided to wage war with Israel while hiding behind civilians in Gaza,” he added.
The IDF reported that they also found Sinwar’s DNA in a Rafah tunnel near another where last August the Israeli army recovered the bodies of six hostages taken on Oct. 7.
Hamas has not yet confirmed or commented on the death of its leader.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in 1962, Sinwar joined Hamas at a young age and became a leader in 2017 after building a reputation as a bitter enemy of Israel.
In 1989, he was sentenced to four life terms in Israel, but was released in 2011 as part of the exchange of 1,047 Palestinian prisoners for the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Sinwar was chosen as the Islamist group’s overall leader on Aug. 6 following the assassination in Tehran of the then-political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.
He represented Hamas’ hardest and most belligerent faction and became Israel’s most wanted man after the Oct. 7 attacks, and placed on the EU sanctions list.
Sinwar allegedly planned the attacks with the head of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, Mohamed Deif, who was killed in an Israeli attack in June in Mawasi, south of the Strip.
Western leaders on Thursday largely spoke of Sinwar’s death as an opportunity for change in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden congratulated Netanyahu in a phone call. In a statement he said “DNA tests have now confirmed that Sinwar is dead. This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
He said Sinwar’s death provides the opportunity now 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.”
US Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris said: “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it 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. And it is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday was “a turning point as well as a military success for Israel.”
“This opportunity must be seized to secure the release of all hostages and for an end to finally be brought to the war,” he said, also stressing the need to “end the military operations … and accept the ceasefire in Gaza, and open a credible political perspective for Israelis and Palestinians.”
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said on X that “Sinwar was a terrorist, listed by the EU, responsible for the heinous 7/10 attack. He was an obstacle to an urgently needed ceasefire & the unconditional release of all hostages. There must be an end to violence, liberation of hostages & stop to the suffering of Palestinians.”
“His death is certainly significantly weakening Hamas,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who called for a ceasefire along with European Council President Charles Michel.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that a “new phase must now begin: It is time for all hostages to be released, for an immediate ceasefire to be proclaimed, and for reconstruction to begin in Gaza.” EFE
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(FILE) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference for the international media at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Sep. 04, 2024. EFE/EPA/ABIR SULTAN EPA POOL