Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei paid tribute to Yahya Sinwar, considered the architect of last year’s strikes on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Hamas was alive and will survive despite the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday in an Israeli military operation in Gaza.
“His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front” against Israel, “but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar”, Khamenei said.
The Palestinian Islamist movement “Hamas is alive and will remain alive”, he said in a statement. Sinwar “was the shining figure of resistance and struggle”, Khamenei said.
Sinwar was seen as the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that sparked the Gaza war – since he was killed on Wednesday.
“He stood with unwavering determination against the cruel and aggressive enemy and slapped them with tact and courage,” he added.
“He left behind the irreparable blow of October 7, 2023 as his legacy in the history of this region, and then he soared with honour and pride to the ascension of the martyrs.”
Sinwar, long a man in the shadows, took over as head of Hamas after the killing in July of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Since Israel claimed Sinwar’s death on Thursday and Hamas political official Khalil al-Hayya confirmed the death on Friday, Hamas has reiterated its stance that the hostages they took from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The staunch position pushed back against a statement by Netanyahu that his country’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released, and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
“We always thought that when this moment arrived, the war would end and our lives would return to normal,” 21-year-old Gazan Jemaa Abu Mendi said, referring to Sinwar’s death.
“But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated.”
Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.
While it did not spell the end of the war, the killing of Israel’s most wanted man was “the beginning of the end”, the Israeli leader added.
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s top arms provider, said Sinwar’s death was “an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas”.
In a joint statement, Biden and the leaders of Germany, France, and Britain emphasised “the immediate necessity to bring the hostages home to their families, for ending the war in Gaza, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians”.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged Israel’s government and international mediators to leverage “this major achievement to secure hostages’ return”.
In August, Netanyahu called Sinwar “the only obstacle to a hostage deal”.
Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of killed hostage Yoram Metzger, said with Sinwar dead it was “unacceptable” that the hostages would “stay in captivity even one more day”.
“We [are] afraid that Netanyahu does not intend on stopping the war, nor does he intend to bring the hostages back,” she said.
An Israeli autopsy found that Sinwar was initially wounded in the arm by shrapnel, but killed by a gunshot to the head, The New York Times reported.
The newspaper said it was unclear who fired the shot or when, or what weapon was used.
Sinwar’s killing appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday, and it could shift the dynamics of the war in Gaza even as Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and air strikes in other areas of the country.
Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas politically in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. But Netanyahu said in a Thursday night speech announcing the killing that “our war is not yet ended.”
Still, the governments of Israel’s allies and exhausted residents of Gaza expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.
In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded the Israeli government use Sinwar’s killing as a way to restart negotiations to bring home their loved ones. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.
