Israel confirmed yesterday that it had killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that set off the war in Gaza. (New York Times)
Our Take
It’s fair to say there are very few people who will mourn Sinwar’s death. The attack on Israel a little over a year ago set off a chain of events that has been universally destructive for everyone in the entire region, and Sinwar planned and executed it without consulting his partners, Iran and Hezbollah, while even taking some of Hamas’ political leadership outside Gaza by surprise.
For Israel, Sinwar had become a personalized symbol of that attack and the trauma it caused, making his killing by Israeli troops cathartic. And while it is harder to gauge sentiment in Gaza, Palestinians there have suffered the most from Israel’s bombardment in response to the Oct. 7 attack over the past year. Israel’s more recent bombardment of southern and central Lebanon, as well its cross-border incursion, is also a direct consequence of the attack and Hezbollah’s attempt to demonstrate solidarity with Hamas in its immediate aftermath.