JERUSALEM: After Hamas confirmed the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar in an attack on Friday, both Israel and its foes in the region — including Hezbollah and Iran — vowed to keep fighting.

Iran said Sinwar’s killing would only fuel “the spirit of resistance”, while Hamas insisted it would not release prisoners taken during the October 7 rain on Israel, until the war on Gaza ends.

“The martyrdom of our brother, the leader Yahya Sinwar ... will only increase the strength and resolve of Hamas and our resistance,” it said, confirming his death.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.

He added that while it did not spell the end of the war, it was “the beginning of the end”.

US President Joe Biden, whose government 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 [Israeli prisoners] home to their families, for ending the war in Gaza, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians”.

But Sinwar’s death was mourned across the Muslim world. The Palestine Liberation Organization expressed its condolences on his “martyrdom” and called for unity among all Palestinian factions.

The PLO accused Israel of committing “massacres and genocide” against Palestinians and called for a united struggle against Israel for the “full reclaiming of our rights, including the right of return, the end of the occupation, and the establishment of our Palestinian state on all our occupied territories based on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its eternal capital”.

In a separate statement, Fatah, the party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said Israel’s policy of “killing and terrorism will not succeed in breaking the will of our people to achieve their legitimate national rights to freedom and independence”.

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, in a statement, said: “The criminal enemy is delusional if he thinks that by assassinating the great leaders of the resistance such as Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, al-Arouri and others, he can extinguish the flame of the resistance or force it to retreat.

Rather, it will continue and escalate until the legitimate goals of our people are achieved.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian termed the news as being “painful for the world’s freedom seekers, especially the heroic people of Palestine and a clear sign of the unstoppable crimes of the child-killing Zionist occupier regime”.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2024