The Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Friday it would a new stage of escalation of the war against Israel, At the same time, Iran stated that “the spirit of resistance will strengthen” after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at the hands of Israeli forces.
Sinvar, organizer of the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 who sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, died Wednesday during an operation by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave, a decisive development in the year-long conflict.
Some Western leaders said his death offered a chance to end the conflict, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war will continue until all the kidnapped hostages are returned Hamas militants.
“Today we paid off. Today evil has struckbut our task is not yet completedNetanyahu said in a videotaped statement after the death was confirmed on Thursday.
“I say to the dear families of the hostages: this is an important moment in the war. “We will continue to do our best until all your loved ones, our loved ones, return home.”
Sinwar, named the absolute leader of Hamas after the death of political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July in an Israeli attack, was believed to be hiding in a network of tunnels that Hamas had built under the Gaza Strip over the past two decades.
He was killed on Wednesday during a firefight in the southern Gaza Strip. according to Israeli authorities, at the hands of Israeli soldiers who were initially unaware that they had captured their country’s number one enemy.
The army released a video recorded by a drone in which Sinwar was allegedly seen sitting in a chair and covered in dust inside the destroyed building.
Hamas has not commented on the matter, but sources within the group have said that the signs they have seen point to the fact that indeed The Israeli military killed Sinwar.
Hopes for peace in the Middle East are fading
Despite Western hopes for a ceasefire, Sinwar’s death could spark hostilities in the Middle Eastwhere the prospect of even greater conflict grew.
Israel launched a ground campaign in Lebanon this month and is now planning a response to an Oct. 1 rocket attack by Iran, an ally of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But the death of the man who planned last year’s attack in which The militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages. Israel estimates it could also boost stalled efforts to end the war in which Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
US President Joe Biden, who spoke by phone with Netanyahu to congratulate him, said Sinwar’s death provided an opportunity for the conflict in Gaza to finally endWoe to the Israeli hostages returning home.
The United States wants to begin negotiations on a proposal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, pointing to Sinvar as the “main obstacle” to ending the war.
“This obstacle has obviously been removed. “I cannot predict that this fact means that whoever replaces (Sinwar) will agree to a ceasefire, but it does mean the removal of what has been the main obstacle to its achievement in recent months,” he said He. Sinwar has refused to negotiate in recent weeks, Miller said.
Iran and Hezbollah, defiant in the face of Western threats
Iran has given no indication that it will change its support. “The spirit of resistance will be strengthened” after Sinwar’s death, his mission to the United Nations reported.
Hezbollah also showed disobedience and declared “Transition to a new stage of escalation of the confrontation with Israel.”
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had also killed Mohamad Hassin Ramal, a Hezbollah commander in the Tayyibeh region of southern Lebanon.
Families of some of the Israeli hostages said that while Sinwar’s killing was a significant achievement, it would not be enough as long as the hostages remained imprisoned in the Gaza Strip.
Avi Marciano, the father of Noah Marciano, the woman Hamas killed during her captivity, told Israeli radio station KAN that “the monster, the one who took her from me, the one whose hands were stained with the blood of all our daughters, finally” He found the gate hell.”
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“A little justice, but no consolation,” he said. “The only consolation will be when Naama, Liri, Agam, Daniela and Karina, our girls’ friends, return home.”
In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, a displaced Palestinian named Zabet Amour told Reuters that the Palestinian struggle will continue.
“It’s a resistance that doesn’t disappear when the men disappear,” he said. “Killing Sinvar will not lead to an end to the resistance, nor will it lead to a white flag compromise or capitulation.”