Israel conducted raids on Gaza on Friday today, pressing its year-long war to crush Hamas after dealing in a massive blow with the killing of its leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Hailing the killing of Sinwar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack was not over, but added that it was “the beginning of the end”.
He called the death of Sinwar, mastermind of the deadliest attack in Israeli history, an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.
Chief of Hamas in Gaza at the time of the attack, Sinwar had become the militant group’s overall leader after the killing in July of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said: “This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
“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.”
– Air strikes –
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures that includes hostages killed in captivity.
Militants also took 251 people hostage during the attack. Ninety-seven remain in Gaza, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.
The killing of Sinwar did not spell an end to Israel’s air strikes on Gaza, with several raids overnight and early Friday pummelling the territory, according to an AFP journalist on the ground.
According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, rescuers recovered the bodies of three Palestinian children from the rubble of their home in the north of the territory after it was hit at dawn.
The Israel military said it was pressing its operation in Jabalia, one of the focuses of the fighting in recent weeks, and where strikes on Thursday killed at least 14 people, according to two hospitals.
A UN-backed assessment has found some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter.
With the civilian toll in Gaza mounting, Israel has faced criticism over its conduct of the war, including from the United y
Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages seized by militants has killed 42,438 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.
Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi vowed to keep fighting “until we capture all the terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre and bring all the hostages home”.
Some Israelis hailed the news of Sinwar’s death as a sign of better things to come.
“I am celebrating the death of Sinwar, who has brought us nothing but harm, who has taken people hostage,” said one Israeli woman, Hemda, who only gave her first name.
Attending a Tel Aviv rally demanding the hostages’ release, 60-year-old Sisil, who also gave only her first name, said his killing presented a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for “a hostage deal to end the war”.
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, Biden called him to congratulate him on Sinwar’s killing, with the two leaders vowing to seize “an opportunity to promote the release of the hostages”.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government and international mediators to leverage “this major achievement to secure hostages’ return”.
