Israel vows to eliminate new Hamas leader as war enters 11th month (2024)

JERUSALEM - Israel has vowed to eliminate new Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the Oct 7 attack, with regional hostilities threatening to boil over as the Gaza war entered its 11th month.

The naming of Sinwar to lead the Palestinian militant group came as Israel steeled itself for potential Iranian retaliation over the killing of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh last week in Tehran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a military base on Aug 7 that Israel was determined to defend itself. “We are prepared both defensively and offensively,” he told new recruits.

Army chief, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, vowed to “find him (Sinwar), attack him” and force Hamas to find someone to replace him.

Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza since 2017, has not been seen since the Oct 7 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history. Analysts believe he has been more reluctant to agree to a Gaza ceasefire and is closer to Tehran than Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar.

“If a ceasefire deal seemed unlikely upon Haniyeh’s death, it is even less likely under Sinwar,” said Ms Rita Katz, executive director of the Site Intelligence Group, adding that Hamas would “only lean further into its hardline militant strategy”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was up to Sinwar to help achieve a ceasefire, saying he “has been and remains the primary decider”.

Civilians in both Israel and Gaza met Sinwar’s appointment with unease.

Mr Mohammad al-Sharif, a displaced Gazan, said: “He is a fighter. How will negotiations take place?”

In Tel Aviv, logistics company manager Hanan, who did not want to give his second name, said Sinwar’s appointment meant Hamas “did not see fit to look for someone less militant, someone with a less murderous approach”.

Hezbollah vows response

Hamas’ Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah has pledged to avenge the deaths of Haniyeh and its own military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

In a televised address to mark one week since Shukr’s death, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Aug 6 that his group would retaliate “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed groups in the region.

The US, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.

President Joe Biden this week spoke with regional leaders, while Mr Blinken told reporters the message of restraint had been communicated directly to both Israel and Iran.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron told Mr Netanyahu on Aug 7 to “avoid a cycle of reprisals”, after earlier delivering the same message to his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian.

Mr Pezeshkian told Mr Macron in a separate telephone call that the West “should immediately stop selling arms and supporting” Israel if it wants to prevent war, his office said.

Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s killing, but confirmed it had carried out the strike on Shukr.

Flights cancelled

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war.

On Aug 7, a Lebanese security source said a Hezbollah fighter and a civilian were killed in an Israeli strike near Jouaiyya, close to the border. The Israeli military said it had eliminated a Hamas commander in the area.

The Israeli military later said its jets had destroyed a launcher on Aug 7 night that had been used by Hezbollah to send drones towards the Golan Heights earlier in the evening.

Many airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon or limited them to daylight hours due to security fears. Egypt said Iran warned civilian airlines to steer clear of its airspace as it will hold military exercises overnight.

The United Nations said it was temporarily reducing the presence of UN staff family members in Lebanon, although it was not moving its staff.

The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian group’s unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel, has drawn in Iran-backed militants in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,677 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Israel’s army said on Aug 8 that a strike in Gaza in late July had killed senior Hamas member Nael Sakhl, whom it said was involved in directing terror activities in the occupied West Bank.

The war has created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with almost all of its 2.4 million people displaced and suffering from food shortages.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich drew sharp condemnation from some allies on Aug 7 for suggesting it might be justified to starve the territory. “No one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages,” he said at a conference this week.

The EU said Mr Smotrich’s remarks showed “contempt for international law and for basic principles of humanity”.

France expressed its “deep dismay” at the comments, while United Kingdom Foreign Minister David Lammy called on “the wider Israeli government to retract and condemn them”. AFP