Courtesy of JTA. Photo credit: Amir Levy/Getty Images
A protester holds a sign during a demonstration calling for a hostages deal in Tel Aviv, Oct. 17, 2024
(JTA) — For months, the United States has signaled that Yahya Sinwar was the biggest impediment to a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war, with the Hamas leader unwilling to consider any scenarios that would require his group to cede control over the Palestinian territory.
But does that mean his death, announced Thursday, means the war could soon come to an end?
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president in next month’s election, say they think it should. But both Israel and Hamas have signaled that they plan to keep fighting.
“Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people, including the victims of Oct. 7 and hostages killed in Gaza. He had American blood on his hands,” Harris posted when sharing a video statement after Sinwar’s killing on Thursday. “Because of his death, the United States, Israel, and the entire world are better off — and this moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.”
And on Friday, Biden, speaking at a gathering of world leaders in Germany, said he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek an end to the war. The Biden administration has previously criticized Netanyahu over his approach to negotiations, saying, as his critics within Israel have charged, that he has added conditions when breakthroughs appeared near.
“Now is the time to move on,” Biden said he told Netanyahu. “Move on, move toward a cease-fire in Gaza, make sure that we move in a direction that we’re going to be in a position to make things better for the whole world.”
Whether and how that happens is unclear. Officially announcing Sinwar’s death on Thursday, Netanyahu signaled that he did not consider Sinwar’s killing a war-ending accomplishment.
“While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end,” he posted when sharing a speech in which he said, “Today, evil suffered a heavy blow, but our mission is not yet completed.”
Some of Netanyahu’s coalition partners have said they will not brook any scaling back in the war effort (and a handful of his party officials this week announced a conference to discuss Israeli settlements in Gaza, a goal of some on the far right. Netanyahu has counted out resettling the enclave.)
“We must continue with all our strength — until the absolute victory!” far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted after Sinwar’s death was confirmed.
John Kirby, Biden’s National Security Council spokesman, said Sinwar’s removal offers Israel ample room now to get to a ceasefire.
“Sinwar was the main obstacle to getting a ceasefire done,” he told reporters in Germany. Every time Sinwar’s negotiators would provisionally agree to a deal it would need his final approval and he would nix it, Kirby said. “It’s not as if the Israelis weren’t willing to continue to find compromises, and they did — each and every time, Sinwar found a way to stop it … his death does provide a unique opportunity here.”
For its part, neither Hamas nor its allies have indicated any plans to give up fighting. After a daylong silence, a senior Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya, said Sinwar’s killing would only strengthen the group. Sinwar’s death, he said, would be turn into a curse “on the occupiers.” He also said the hostages would not be released until Israeli forces withdraw totally from Gaza.
Hamas has not announced a successor to Sinwar, but the group has survived killings of its leaders in the past — including in August, when Sinwar succeeded Ismail Haniyeh as political chief after Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
Iran, too, said said the “spirit of resistance” among those opposing Israel would be strengthened by Sinwar’s death. And Hezbollah, the terror group that Israel has been battling in Lebanon, said it would escalate its aggression against Israel.
On Thursday, the same day Sinwar’s death was announced, four Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon.
Even as many Israelis rejoiced at Sinwar’s death, families of the 101 people still held hostage in Gaza — including dozens thought to be alive — said they feared that it would place their loved ones in greater danger. They said they feared that hostages would be executed in retaliation.
Israeli officials disclosed that six hostages executed in August had been killed as troops closed in on where they believed Sinwar was hiding, and DNA evidence later confirmed that the Hamas leader had been in the same tunnel.
A new poll released Thursday shows that more than half of Israelis see freeing the hostages, not Sinwar’s death or any other milestone, as the war’s top goal and 70% support a ceasefire deal that would free them.
In her comments, Harris emphasized that Sinwar’s death offered “clear progress” toward Israel’s goal of toppling Hamas in Gaza.
“Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated,” she said. “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. And it is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power.”
