“You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword,” – Leviticus 26. These were the words tweeted by the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and circulated on media channels around the globe, as the world waited to confirm reports that the leader of Hamas had been killed in Gaza.
The Scripture proclamation aired on news channels in Britain was a welcome antidote to the BBC and SkyNews’ decision to interview Hamas-sympathising “experts” without any serious challenges.
Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader and orchestrator of October 7th, was not a ‘freedom-fighter’, ‘liberator’, or a ‘martyr’. He was a terrorist, a mass-murderer and a barbarian.
In one interview, a SkyNews commentator spoke for 20 minutes in which we tried to paint the Hamas leader as a Hero: “For the Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims and many people in the world he’s an anti-colonial leader who was trying to free his people from Israeli subjugation.”
Sky News commentator attempts to paint Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar as a hero.
“For the Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims and many people in the world he’s an anti-colonial leader who was trying to free his people from Israeli subjugation.”
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) October 18, 2024
On Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the nation in a public address that the killing of Yahya Sinwar marks “the beginning of the day after Hamas,” but warned that his death would not mark the end of the war in the Gaza Strip unless Hamas surrenders and frees all the hostages.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza,” Netanyahu promised. “To the Hamas terrorists, I say: Your leaders are fleeing and they will be eliminated.”
The US, Britain and European allies had voiced strong aversion to Israel’s offensive in the southernmost Gaza city before it was launched in May, fearing it would lead to massive civilian casualties — a concern that proved unfounded.
Netanyahu said Sinwar’s killing would serve to make it clear to critics in Israel and abroad why his government insisted on continuing its year-long war against Hamas, and in particular “why we insisted, in the face of all the pressures, to enter Rafah, the fortified stronghold of Hamas where Sinwar and many of the murderers hid.”
Turning to the families of hostages, Netanyahu said the killing of Sinwar was “an important moment” in the war. “We will continue with all our strength until the return of all of your loved ones, who are our loved ones,” he vowed.
Freeing the hostages would bring the end of the war closer, the premier added, but warned that it was not yet over.
Yahya Sinwar is dead.
He was killed in Rafah by the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.
While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end. pic.twitter.com/C6wAaLH1YW
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 17, 2024
Yahya Sinwar rose to power in 2017. He was one of the terror group’s most influential and hardline figures. He was a founding member of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-din al-Qassam Brigades, and had been involved in the group’s operations since the 1980s. He was known for killing and torturing Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.
Sinwar was imprisoned for over two decades in Israel for his involvement in terrorism, but released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Involved in Hamas’s military strategy, Hamas continued to develop its terror activities and was architect of the October 7th massacre, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.
Sinwar was killed during an IDF operation in Rafah, but Israel did not have intelligence ahead of time that the Hamas leader was there. IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that the decision to hold on to some territory in Gaza and operate there was proven correct.
With Sinwar now removed, some are speculating whether Hamas will be more likely to surrender or agree to release all remaining hostages.
No doubt though, the killing of Sinwar has sent a message to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
In his video address, Netanyahu looked further afield than Gaza, to Iran and its various proxy groups scattered across the Middle East.
Netanyahu said that Sinwar’s death, and the killing of many other Iranian-backed terror leaders in recent months, would allow the people of the Middle East “a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future — a future of peace, a future in which the entire region thrives. Together we can push away the curse and advance the blessing.”
“In Gaza, in Beirut, in the streets of the entire area, the darkness is withdrawing and the light is rising,” he said, and listed Hamas and Hezbollah leaders eliminated: “Deif, Haniyeh, Sinwar, Nasrallah, Mohsen, Aqil and many of their partners are no more.”
In a message to dozens of his counterparts around the world, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Sinwar’s death was “a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of radical Islam led by Iran.”
President Isaac Herzog took a similar line as he commended the IDF, the Shin Bet and security services for eliminating “the arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar” who was “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians, citizens of other countries, and the murder of thousands of innocent people.”
Sinwar’s “evil endeavors were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East,” Herzog stated, adding that “now, more than ever, we must act in every way possible to bring back the 101 hostages who are still being held in horrific conditions by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.”
