Israeli officials said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel Defense Forces in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Hamas has not commented publicly on the reports.

Sinwar was the mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people and set off Israel’s year-long war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel has made killing him a key objective, and may now be more willing to scale back its military operations in Gaza.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    He was particularly hostile to peace with Israel (and Israel was particularly hostile to peace with him). Furthermore (according to my understanding) Hamas doesn’t have much formal structure; it isn’t like the USA where the government is ready to accept the vice president as the leader if the president dies. I assume that Sinwar prepared a successor, but there’s still probably no one who knows all the same things and has the loyalty of all the same people.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        He also wrote that Netanyahu will pay any price at the expense of the public in Israel, provided that his rule does not fall "and therefore, to the horror of it, there is no chance that the war will end in the foreseeable future. Neither voluntarily nor according to logic. Its continuation forever is the only barrier that will prevent his personal catastrophe.

        Yep, the ongoing war is delaying a corruption trial against Bibi where I think he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, so he’s going to keep this war going forever if he can

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Israel is not the USA. It doesn’t have the economy to support a forever war, even with US help. Most of its soldiers are reservists who need to go back to their jobs sooner rather than later.

          • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            I’m not a fan of Netanyahu but that article isn’t a hard-headed political analysis. Even Netanyahu is constrained by physical reality; he might not have a realistic plan for peace, but that doesn’t mean he can continue war indefinitely.