LOS ANGELES.–Hamas leader 62-year-old Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 Israeli massacre, was killed today in a safe house in Rafah, the most southern-most tip of the Gaza Strip. Sinwar was hit outside his usual hiding place deep inside Gaza labyrinth of military tunnels, discovered by Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] when they combed through the rubble of a tank rocket attack on a suspected terrorist compound. IDF officials positively identified Siwar in the rubble with three other Hamas terrorists, much to the surprise of 74-year-old Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Getting Hamas terrorists in Gaza has been a torturous needle-in-a-haystack enterprise since Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis and others, taking another 250 hostage. Sinwar was killed in a counter-terrorist operation, not a targeted assassination with known intel about Sinwar’s presence in the terrorist hideout.
Sinwar was named Hamas leader after the July 31 assassination in Tehran of billionaire Hamas leader-in-exile Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. IDF officials reviewing photo, medical, dental and DNA records confirmed Sinwar’s death, surprising Israeli officials who had a target on his back but had trouble locating the slippery terrorist. Sinwar hadn’t been seen or heard from since before the Oct. 7, 2023 Nazi-like rape, torture and massacre of Israeli citizens, many of whom teenagers attending the Nova Music Festival in the Negev Desert. “The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead a new reality in Gaza—without Hamas and without Iranian control,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz a statement. Sinwar had been subject to an Israeli manhunt since the Oct. 7, 2023, when Sinwar went into hiding.
Hamas elders in exile appointed Siwar after Haniyeh’s death July 31, in clearly a slap-in-the face to Israel, considering the egregious atrocities committed against Israel. Hamas elders doubled down but who’s left now to lead the Hamas terror group founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to serve as a military wing to Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], twenty years after the 1967 Six-Day-War where Israel defeated Arafat and six other Arab states seeking to destroy Israel. Netanyahu and his IDF have had stunning success since Oct. 7, 2023, going after Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. Hezbollah lost most of its senior leadership including the Sept. 27 assassination of 64-year-old Leader Hassan Nasrallah. Sinwar lost his 59-year-old chief military man Mohammed Deif July 13, confirmed by the IDF Aug. 1. Netanyahu can go down a long list of vaporized Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
When it comes to Sinwar, Hamas’s senior leadership in exile thought he was different than past Hamas leaders assassinated by Israel over the years including Sheikh Ahmd Yassin and his successor Abdel Azziz al-Rantizi both assassinated by Israel March 22, 2004 and April 17, 2024, respectively. Hamas will no doubt find some replacement for Sinwar but it’s high time for Hamas to release whatever remaining hostages and get out of Gaza. Hamas has spent the last 18 years plundering the Gaza Strip of oil-rich donor cash, making millionaires and billionaires out of past Hamas officials. Hamas chief negotiator 68-year-old Khaled Meshaal is worth a reported $4 billion from his piracy of Gaza. Yet Hamas already named fellow billionaire Ismail Haniyeh Hamas leader before his July 31 assassination in Tehran. Hamas might go ahead a name Meshaal as its next Hamas leader.
President Joe Biden, 81, said it was a “good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world” to see Hamas eliminated, saying Siwar “was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans an citizens from over 30 countries. Biden compared Siwar’s death to that of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of Sept. 11. Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, only over two weeks from Election Day, said Sinwar “had American blood on his hands” and “justice has been served,” after spending weeks, if not months, hammering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enter a ceasefire agreement with the bloodthirsty terrorist. Kamala vacillates daily, placating Arab voters in Michigan with giving the No. 1 U.S. ally, Israel, the support it needs to complete its difficult operation in Gaza. President Donald Trump, 78, backs Israel without conditions.
Netanyahu can only stand tall realizing that he kept the faith, resisted to outside pressure, and got one step closer to completing his mission in Gaza. Now it’s up to the international community, including the U.S., to call for Hamas’s removal from Gaza to the long, costly rebuild can star to help the battered Gazan people. Biden and Harris need to stop playing politics with a ceasefire deal and recognize that Netanyahu knows what’s best for the Israeli people. “He chose to send the butchers into our bedrooms to kill our babies,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, told the BBC New in 2023. “And when the chose to go full front against Israel, the signed their own death warrant. A dead man walking. We will get to that man,” Lerner said, with the prophecy fulfilled. Biden and Harris need to stop threatening Israel with military and economic sanctions and congratulate Netanyahu for a job well done.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
