2 hours ago
Last Updated: October 18, 2024, 17:17 IST
Jerusalem, Israel
A person that Israeli army says is Hamas chief Sinwar is seen in Tal Al-Sultan, in this screengrab from a handout video obtained on October 17, 2024. (Reuters)
Hezbollah meanwhile vowed to escalate fighting against Israel and its backer Iran said "the spirit of resistance" would be strengthened by the death of its Palestinian ally Sinwar in Gaza
Covered in dust, and cowering in a chair within a bombed-out Gaza building, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar died shortly after he attempted to throw a stick at an Israeli military drone filming him.
Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed during an operation by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday. The video footage released by the IDF shows Sinwar’s final moments where he is seen ‘sitting on a sofa, wounded’ in a Gaza apartment with the walls blown out from shelling.
Dozens of people on social media were divided over the last moments of Sinwar, who was hunted by the Israeli military a year Hamas attack triggered the Gaza war. Some saw Sinwar’s killing as “a fittingly pathetic end for a terrorist,” while others described it as a moment of defiance in the face of death.
Pro-Israel Vs Pro-Hamas
“Covered in dust & rubble, missing his trigger finger and arm in an iron tourniquet, Sinwar gave the last full measure of devotion. He died for his friends, defiant to the full might & cowardly power of the terror colony to the literal very end by hurling a projectile at the drone marking him for assassination,” wrote one of the pro-Hamas users on X.
“…Westerners will cheer, calling him a terrorist, because the TV told them. But I have a feeling the long arc of history will tell a different story,” the user added. Another pro-Palestine user said that Israel made the mistake of publishing footage of Yahya Sinwar’s last moments. “Wearing a kufiyyeh and severely injured, he threw a stick at the drone filming him – a final act of defiance against the Zionist occupation. In his death, he became a legend,” he added.
“Let Khamenei fear this”
In contrast, supporters of Israel described Sinwar’s death as “A fittingly pathetic end for a disgusting terrorist.” Posting the drone footage of Sinwar, one of the users on X said, “Let Putin, Khamenei, Xi and Kim Jong Un, see and fear this.” Another person said, “He (Hamas chief) started the war with Iranian artillery, he ended the war with a stick. Invading Israel back in October was one fateful mistake.”
Celebrating Sinwar’s killing, another pro-Israel user said, “I hope that in his last moments, he inherited every ounce of fear and pain that had been inflicted on innocent people in the name of the cause he led. An evil has been wiped out, and a hope of peace has been born.”
A milestone
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing a milestone late on Thursday but vowed to keep up the war, which in recent weeks expanded from fighting against Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza into an invasion of southern Lebanon and the bombardment of large swathes of the country.
A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group cannot be eliminated with the killing of its leaders but stopped short of confirming the death of its chief, Yahya Sinwar. “Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated,” Basem Naim, senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP.
In a statement, he listed several Hamas leaders killed in the past and said their deaths had boosted the group’s popularity. “It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people,” Naim said. “Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.”
(With agency inputs)
