Hamas confirmed on Friday that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and reiterated its position that the hostages the movement took from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Troops.
The movement’s firm position was a reaction against the statement made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin the previous day, in which he said that his country’s army would continue fighting until the hostages were released and would remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
The conflicting positions indicate continued deep resistance on both sides to end the current conflict, even as US President Joe Biden and other world leaders stress that Sinwar’s death is a turning point that must be used to open stalled ceasefire negotiations.
The confrontation comes as the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah – an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas – has intensified in recent weeks.
Story continues below ad
Hezbollah said on Friday that it intends to launch a new phase of the fighting by sending more guided missiles and bombing drones into Israel. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike late last month, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon earlier this month.
Khalil Al-Hayya, his deputy residing in Qatar, who represented Hamas during several rounds of ceasefire negotiations, said that Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas, died “while facing the occupation army until the last moment of his life.” Al-Hayya stressed that Hamas will not return any of the hostages “before the end of the aggression against Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza.”

“Moment of Justice”: NATO leaders say the killing of Hamas leader Sinwar opens the door to a ceasefire
The Hamas movement praised Sinwar in a statement, describing him as a hero because he “did not back down, drew his weapons, and clashed and confronted the occupation army at the front of the ranks.”
The statement appears to refer to a video released by the Israeli army showing Sinwar’s final moments, in which a man sits in a chair in a badly damaged building, severely injured and covered in dust. In the video, the man raises his hand and throws a stick at an approaching Israeli drone.
Story continues below ad
Sinwar was the main architect of the Hamas raid on Israel last year that killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 250 others. The Israeli retaliatory attack in Gaza killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run health authorities, which do not distinguish between Palestinians and Israelis. The fighters are civilians, but she says more than half of those killed are women and children.

Get daily national news
Get the day’s top political, economic and current affairs news, headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The attack destroyed vast areas of the Gaza Strip, displaced about 90% of the Strip’s population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Sinwar’s killing appeared to be a chance encounter on the front line with Israeli forces on Wednesday, and could change the dynamics of the conflict in Gaza even as Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah with ground forces in southern Lebanon and air strikes in other areas of the country.
Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel almost every day since the start of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the north of the country. More than a million people have been displaced in Lebanon due to Israeli aerial bombardment and ground attacks.
Iran, which also supports Hamas, praised Sinwar on Friday, calling him a martyr who could inspire others to challenge Israel.
“We, and countless others around the world, salute his selfless struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on the X social media platform. “Martyrs live forever, and the issue of liberating Palestine from occupation is more vital than ever.”
Story continues below ad

Israel says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza
Israel pledged to politically destroy Hamas in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. But Netanyahu said in a speech announcing his death on Thursday evening that “our war is not over yet.”
However, Israel’s allied governments and exhausted Gazans expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday that Sinwar’s death provided an “extraordinary opportunity to achieve a permanent ceasefire” and suggested that the United States would have a role in helping stabilize Gaza in the future. “We hope that countries in the region will intensify their efforts there,” Austin said during a NATO meeting in Brussels.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, during her meeting with her counterpart in Lebanon, that European countries are working for a “sustainable ceasefire” in this country and in Gaza. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that “the diplomatic solution must prevail” over the fighting.
Story continues below ad
But a day after Biden described Sinwar’s killing as an “opportunity for the next day” in Gaza without Hamas in power, he acknowledged the difficulty of reaching a ceasefire there, saying it may be easier to negotiate a halt to the fighting in Gaza. Lebanon.
Trending now
-
A 911 call reporting a bear attack in Montana quickly turns into a homicide investigation
-
Liam Payne: Fans reflect on his final days as the cause of death is revealed
“It will be more difficult in Gaza,” Biden told reporters on Friday after meeting with European leaders in Berlin.
John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, said it was “too early” to assess who “Hamas might appoint as Sinwar’s successor and what that person might be willing to follow.”

‘Horrific’: Miller’s US comment on the Israeli air strike on Gaza over the weekend
In Israel, families of hostages still being held in Gaza have called on the Israeli government to use Sinwar’s killing as a means to resume negotiations to bring their loved ones home. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, and Israel says at least 30 of them are dead.
Story continues below ad
He added: “We are at a turning point where the goals set for the war with Gaza have been achieved, with the exception of the release of the hostages.”
“Sinwar, who has been described as the main obstacle to reaching an agreement, is no longer alive,” Ronen Neutra, the father of Israeli-American hostage Omar Neutra, said in a video statement.
An Israeli official familiar with the negotiations said Netanyahu was planning to hold a private meeting on Friday to discuss hostage negotiations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified information.
The Israeli army announced on Friday that it had allowed 30 trucks loaded with food, water, medical supplies and other supplies to enter northern Gaza, at a time when the country is facing pressure from the United States to increase aid. There was no immediate confirmation from the United Nations of the arrival and distribution of aid in the north.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah issued a statement early Friday saying its fighters had used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive drones against Israel for the first time in recent days.

Israel-Hezbollah: The United Nations warns of a “lost generation” with the displacement of more than 400,000 children in Lebanon
The statement appears to refer to a drone loaded with explosives that evaded Israel’s multi-layered air defense system and crashed into a dining hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel last Sunday, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens. The movement announced earlier this week that it had launched a new type of missile called Qadir 2 towards the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Story continues below ad
The Israeli army announced on Friday that it will activate an additional reserve brigade in northern Israel to support forces fighting in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that six people were killed during the fighting during the past 24 hours, bringing the number of deaths over the past year to 2,418, a quarter of whom were women and children.
Israel said on Friday that its forces killed two activists who crossed the border into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea, coming from Jordan. Such infiltrations are relatively rare, especially since Israel has strengthened border security since the Hamas attack in October 2023.
Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporters Basem Marwa in Beirut, Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem, and Josh Bock in Berlin contributed to this story.