Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this on Thursday assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had “settled the score with him” but emphasized that “the task before us [Israel] is not yet completed.”
Netanyahu said Israel’s focus was on securing the return of the roughly 100 hostages still in Gaza who were taken during last year’s brutal Hamas attack on October 7. Of those, a third is believed to be dead.
“This is an important moment in the war,” Netanyahu told the hostages’ families, according to Reuters news agency. “We will continue with full force until the return home of all your loved ones, who are also our loved ones. This is our highest obligation. This is my highest obligation.”
President Biden said Sinwar’s death after nearly two decades of Hamas rule in Gaza was good news, “for Israel, for the United States and for the world.” Together with other senior American officials, he indicated that this should bring new hope for a ceasefire in the years-long war.
Speaking in Germany on Friday, Mr Biden said he had told Netanyahu that Sinwar had blood on his hands, adding: “Let us also turn this moment into a chance” for peace.
But Hamas made no mention of a renewed push for a ceasefire with Israel after the assassination of its leader.
“It appears that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people,” said Dr. Basem Naim, member of the Political Bureau of the US and Israel-designated terrorist group, said in a statement on Friday. “They can believe whatever they want, and this isn’t the first time they’ve said that.”
“Hamas grew stronger and more popular each time, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine,” Naim said.
The killing of Sinwar, Hamas’s top commander in Gaza since 2017 and the group’s overall leader since August, was a huge blow to Hamas. Senior Hamas spokesman Ismael al-Sawarta told CBS News in Gaza on Thursday that his death “would complicate the situation because he was key to the negotiations and he was the political leader of Hamas.”
But he added: “I don’t think his death will affect or change the war, because the Palestinian resistance is not led by an individual, but is an institution.”
Deputy Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya confirmed Sinwar’s death in a televised address on Friday and said the group would continue on the same path it is on. Al-Hayya said Hamas would not release the remaining hostages without a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
All three Hamas officials noted that the group had continued its fight against Israel after the late July assassination of its previous political leader. Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. Israel has killed many senior figures from both Hamas and its powerful ally Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent months – but fighting continues against both groups conflicts that have cost the lives of tens of thousands of people of people, most of whom are citizens.
Many Israelis cheered Sinwar’s death and gathered Thursday on the beaches and even outside the laboratory where his remains were identified to sing and dance.
But not everyone in the country was celebrating, and many did not appear to share the hope that his killing could mark a turning point for the war, or for their missing loved ones.
At a rally outside the Defense Ministry for the hostages still held in Gaza, families and supporters told CBS News they feared Hamas militants could now kill those who have survived more than a year in captivity.
When asked whether she believed Israel was actually closer to peace, or possibly further away, after Sinwar’s killing, a woman at the meeting who gave only her first name, Ariella, was unsure.
“Don’t know. I wish I knew,” she told CBS News. “I want it to be closer to peace. I really want them back. I want everything to be okay again.”
Among the hostages still in Gaza is 23-year-old Israeli-American Omer Neutra. His parents Orna and Ronen just celebrated their son’s birthday – without him, for the second time.
“It’s just unbelievable that this is his second anniversary in captivity,” Orna said. “We’re really hoping that this nightmare will finally end for us… We’re still stuck on October 7; one long, nightmarish day.”
Israel launched its war in Gaza in immediate response to Hamas’ terrorist attack, which killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. That war has now killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, injured nearly 100,000 and displaced nearly all of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people, according to the Hamas-run enclave’s health ministry.
And despite Mr. Biden’s comments suggesting a new opportunity to push for peace, the Israeli military still escalated its operations in northern Gaza on Friday.
Palestinians in Gaza, who have been living under constant bombardment for a year and have been displaced time and time again, expressed little optimism to CBS News.
“It won’t change anything,” one woman said of Sinwar’s death. ‘Someone else will replace him. God willing, the war will end and we will go back home.’
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