The Israeli military said on Thursday that it is investigating the possibility that it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the devastating Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
At this stage, his identity cannot be confirmed, said the military.
Hamas has not commented on the fate of Sinwar, who was recently elevated to paramount leader of the Palestinian militant group.
I’ll have to wait for the next few hours. But if it turns out to be true, I’m glad he’s dead because he was the one who made October 7 and gave Israel the perfect excuse. He caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I have no empathy for him at all.
In all honesty, there are a few outcomes that are potentially worse if he is dead: Hamas splintering into many smaller factions, or treating him as a silent leader and refusing to release hostages because “he hasn’t ordered it”.
Hopefully Hamas will confirm and whoever replaces him will agree to release the hostages.
This was going to happen in any case. Taking out bin Laden didn’t end Al-Qaeda. But it did highly degrade their capabilities. Same is true of Isis. Like a virus, these groups never really go away, but can be limited to be a non-threat.
I mean that’s not going to happen as long as Israel wants to settle Gaza. I think the past year has shown that quite well.
I hope you’re wrong about both Israeli territorial ambitions and the unwillingness of Hamas to release hostages.
How are the Egyptian media covering the news?
Egypt has less than China levels of freedom of speech so I don’t follow Egyptian media, but if I had to guess they’re probably reporting with reasonable accuracy on happenings on the ground while trying and failing to not make Sisi look like a wuss.
I have no sympathy or empathy for him either, but this is also not going to stop anything Israel is doing, so it’s kind of meaningless in terms of the big picture.