The United States has said that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas who was killed in an Israeli military operation yesterday may hasting the ceasefire deal and bring an end to the war in Gaza.
State Department Spokesman, Mathew Miller who disclosed this during a Press Briefing on Thursday said Sinwar was a brutal, vicious terrorist responsible for death of American citizens, Israelis, and civilians from more than 30 countries across the world.
He said it was very much Sinwar’s decision to launch the terrorist attacks of October 7th unleashed a year of tragedy in Middle East where 1,200 people were murdered, 254 hostages kidnapped and hauled children, elderly, men, women of all ages, and more than 40,000 people dead in Gaza, many of them civilians.
“That is the blood-soaked legacy that Yahya Sinwar leaves behind. He didn’t just launch this conflict, but for past year has refused the efforts of the United States and partners to end it; refused to return home hostages who have been separated from their families.
“For more than a year; refused to agree to a ceasefire proposal endorsed by the United Nations Security Council and countries around the world; and who in recent weeks refused to even negotiate at all on a ceasefire and an end to the war.
“There are 101 hostages who remain in Gaza, including seven Americans. And of course, there are 2 million Palestinians who continue to suffer the consequences of Sinwar’s decision to endanger their lives”.
Miller stated that the path that Sinwar wanted for the region is death, destruction, instability, chaos, a path that the people of the region reject. “The horrors of the past year cannot be the future, and they do not need to be the future. It is time to chart a different path.
“So, over the days ahead, the United States will redouble our efforts to return the hostages home, to bring an end to this war, to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, and to allow the people of Gaza to begin to rebuild their lives”, he said.
State Department Spokesman explained that the United States been trying to achieve a ceasefire that returns the hostages home, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and ends the war for many months now.
He said, “And the chief obstacle to reaching that ceasefire and bringing an end to the war has been Sinwar, who refused to negotiate at all in recent weeks and has said no time and time again. That obstacle has obviously been removed.
Miller stated further that he can’t predict that whoever replaces Hamas will agree to the ceasefire, “but it does remove what has been in recent months be the obstacle to getting one. So,we’re going to continue to work with our partners to try to find an end to the war”.
Meanwhile, Israeli military released a drone footage of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in which seen attempting to hit a military drone inside a house following an encounter with the IDF troops.
Sinwar – the chief of Hamas – was killed along with two of his associates in Rafah fighting, according to Israeli military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip was the “beginning of the end” of the year-long war in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said that after a lengthy hunt, troops had on Wednesday “eliminated Yahya Sinwar, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip”. Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas at the start of the war, hailed Sinwar’s killing, saying: “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end.”
He had earlier called Sinwar’s death an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.
The chief of Hamas in Gaza at the time of the October 7 attack that sparked the war, Sinwar became the fighters group’s overall leader after the martyrdom in July of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
Israel’s announcement of Sinwar’s death comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a strike in Lebanon, where the Israeli military has been at war since late September.
With Hamas already weakened more than a year into the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death deals an immense blow to the organisation.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said: “This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
“There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Hamas also seized 251 hostages during the October 7 attack and took them into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.
Following the attack, Netanyahu vowed to defeat Hamas and bring home all the hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 42,438 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.