Israel and its Iran-aligned foes vow more war after Hamas leader’s death

Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar gestures during an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City, May 24, 2021. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 18 October 2024
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Israel and its Iran-aligned foes vow more war after Hamas leader’s death

  • Israel’s arch-foe and the militants’ main backer Iran also said Sinwar’s death would only fuel “the spirit of resistance“
  • That rhetoric from the warring parties contrasted with Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, who said Sinwar’s death offered a chance for negotiations

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Pledges from Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fighting in Gaza and Lebanon dashed hopes on Friday that the death of Palestinian militant leader Yahya Sinwar might hasten an end to more than a year of escalating war in the Middle East.
Israel’s arch-foe and the militants’ main backer Iran also said Sinwar’s death would only fuel “the spirit of resistance.”
Hamas leader Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday.
Video showed him tossing a stick at a drone as he sat dying.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his killing a milestone but vowed to keep up the war, which in recent weeks expanded from fighting Hamas in Gaza into an invasion and pursuit of Hezbollah of Lebanon.
“The war, my dear ones, is not yet over,” Netanyahu told Israelis late on Thursday, saying fighting would continue until hostages held by Hamas are released.
“We have before us a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil,” he added, referring to Iran and its militant allies across the region, also in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Hamas said hostages would only be released with a halt of hostilities in Gaza, an Israeli withdrawal and the release of its prisoners. “The martyrdom of our brother, the leader Yahya Sinwar ... will only increase the strength and resolve of Hamas and our resistance,” it said, confirming his death in combat.
That rhetoric from the warring parties contrasted with Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, who said Sinwar’s death offered a chance for negotiations.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Sinwar had been refusing talks. “Can’t predict that that means whoever replaces (Sinwar) will agree to a ceasefire, but it does remove what has been in recent months the chief obstacle to getting one,” he said.
Israel’s government has rejected several attempts by its main ally the US at brokering ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, pressing on with its wars. Iran has looked largely powerless to match Israel’s military might, including US arms.
One senior diplomat working in Lebanon told Reuters that hopes Sinwar’s death would end the war appeared misplaced.
“We had hoped, really throughout this, that getting rid of Sinwar would be the turning point where the wars would end ... where everyone would be ready to put their weapons down. It appears we were once again mistaken,” the diplomat said.
The conflict has caused the first direct Iranian-Israeli confrontations, including missile attacks on Israel in April and Oct. 1. Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the October attack, which caused little damage. Washington has pressed Israel to limit targets and not strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.

TRACKED AND KILLED
Sinwar, Hamas’ overall leader following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, was believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza.
He was killed during a gunbattle on Wednesday by Israeli troops initially unaware they had caught their number one enemy, Israeli officials said.
The military released drone video of what it said was Sinwar, sitting on an armchair and covered in dust inside a destroyed building. He was tracked by the drone as he lay dying, the video showed, desperately throwing a stick.
The Oct. 7, 2023 attacks he masterminded in Israel killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Israel has subsequently killed more than 42,000 people, according to Palestinian officials. Its offensive has made most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people homeless, maimed tens of thousands, caused widespread hunger and destroyed hospitals and schools.
Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Hamas ally on Oct. 8, is the target of Israel’s intensifying assault on Lebanon, which has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced 1.2 million.
Israel has now killed several of Hamas’ top leaders and in a matter of weeks decapitated the Hezbollah leadership, mainly through air strikes.
The killings have dealt a blow to what anti-Israeli forces call the Axis of Resistance: a group of proxy militant groups that Iran has spent decades supporting across the region.
Iran showed no sign Sinwar’s killing would shift its support. “The spirit of resistance will be strengthened,” its mission to the United Nations said.
Hezbollah was also defiant, announcing “the transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with Israel.”
The Israeli military said on Friday it had also killed Muhammad Hassin Ramal, Hezbollah’s commander of the Tayibe area in southern Lebanon.
Families of Israeli hostages said that while the killing of Sinwar was an achievement, it would not be complete while captives are still in Gaza.
Avi Marciano, father of Noa Marciano, who was killed in captivity by Hamas, told Israeli broadcaster KAN that “the monster, the one who took her from me, who had the blood of all our daughters on his hands, finally met the gates of hell.”


Israel attacks Yemen’s Hodeidah after evacuation warnings, Houthis say

Updated 4 sec ago
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Israel attacks Yemen’s Hodeidah after evacuation warnings, Houthis say

HODEIDAH: Israel attacked Hodeidah in Yemen after the Israeli army said it had warned residents of three ports under Houthi control to evacuate, the Houthi interior ministry said on Sunday.
The strikes came shortly after Israel warned residents of Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif to leave, saying the ports were being used by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
There was no immediate comment on the attack from Israel.
The strikes came a few days after a missile launched toward Israel by the Houthis was intercepted.
The attack came ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week.
Trump, who had launched an intensified military campaign against Houthi strongholds in Yemen on March 15, agreed to an Oman-mediated ceasefire deal with the group, who said the accord did not include Israel.
The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at Israel as well as attacking vessels in global shipping lanes, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has carried out numerous retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Hamas says Edan Alexander, last living American hostage in Gaza, will be released in truce efforts

US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander has been held by Hamas since the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war. (File/AFP
Updated 12 min 38 sec ago
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Hamas says Edan Alexander, last living American hostage in Gaza, will be released in truce efforts

  • Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States
  • Trump has frequently mentioned Alexander, now 21, by name in the past few months

GAZA CITY: Hamas says Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, will be released as part of efforts to establish a ceasefire, reopen crossings into the territory and resume the delivery of aid.
The Hamas statement Sunday night does not say when the release will happen.
The announcement comes shortly before US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East this week. Trump is not planning to visit Israel.
Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States. He was abducted from his base during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
Khalil Al-Hayyah, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group has been in contact with the US administration over the past few days.
He said in a statement Hamas is ready to “immediately start intensive negotiations” to reach a final deal for a long-term truce which includes an end to the war, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages in Gaza and the handing over of power in Gaza to an independent body of technocrats.
Alexander’s parents did not immediately return requests for comment, and there was no immediate response from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has frequently mentioned Alexander, now 21, by name in the past few months.
“Every time they say Edan’s name, it’s like they didn’t forget. They didn’t forget he’s American, and they’re working on it,” Edan’s mother, Yael Alexander, told The Associated Press in February.
Bombardment continues
Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday killed 15 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.
Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Another seven people were killed in strikes elsewhere, including a man and his child in a Gaza City neighborhood, according to hospitals and Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for civilian deaths in the 19-month-old war because the militants are embedded in densely populated areas. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the latest strikes.
Israel has sealed Gaza off from all imports, including food, medicine and emergency shelter, for over 10 weeks in what it says is a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Hamas to release hostages. Israel resumed its offensive in March, shattering a ceasefire that had facilitated the release of more than 30 hostages.
The UN and aid groups say food and other supplies are running low and hunger is widespread.
Children carrying empty bottles raced after a water tanker in a devastated area of northern Gaza on Sunday. Residents of the built-up Shati refugee camp said the water was brought by a charity from elsewhere in Gaza. Without it, they rely on wells that are salty and often polluted.
“I am forced to drink salty water, I have no choice,” said Mahmoud Radwan. “This causes intestinal disease, and there’s no medicine to treat it.”
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, says enough aid entered during a two-month ceasefire this year and that two of the three main water lines from Israel are still functioning. Aid groups say the humanitarian crisis is worse than at any time in the 19-month war.


Qatar delivers more than 60,000 tonnes of fuel to Lebanese army

Updated 11 May 2025
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Qatar delivers more than 60,000 tonnes of fuel to Lebanese army

  • Delivery is third and final shipment of fuel for 25
  • Qatar’s actions indicate its support for the Lebanese people

LONDON: Qatar dispatched more than 60,000 tonnes of fuel to Lebanon on Sunday as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the country’s security capabilities.

The Qatar Fund for Development delivered the third and final fuel shipment for 2025, which comprised 62,000 tonnes of fuel, to the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.

The fund stated that the shipment is intended to strengthen the Lebanese army’s operational capabilities and contribute to Lebanon's security and stability, the Qatar News Agency reported.

The delivery is a sign of Qatar’s support for the Lebanese people, as well as a contribution to prosperity and stability in the country, the QNA added.


Palestinian vice president discusses Gaza, West Bank with Qatar’s prime minister

Updated 11 May 2025
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Palestinian vice president discusses Gaza, West Bank with Qatar’s prime minister

  • Hussein Al-Sheikh calls for Palestinian Authority to take on civil, security responsibilities in Gaza
  • Qatari official briefed on latest developments in West Bank

LONDON: Hussein Al-Sheikh, the vice president of Palestine, has discussed in Doha the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.

Al-Sheikh spoke of the Palestinian stance on Gaza, calling for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave to allow the Palestinian Authority to take on civil and security responsibilities, the Palestine News Agency reported.

The officials looked at the preparations for the upcoming Arab League Summit in Baghdad and the anticipated visit of US President Donald Trump to the region this week.

Al-Sheikh also briefed the Qatari official on the latest developments in the West Bank, highlighting the urgent need for a ceasefire and the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Qatar’s prime minister reaffirmed his country’s strong support for the Palestinian cause, emphasizing the importance of international law and the establishment of a Palestinian state, the WAFA Agency added.

Al-Sheikh was appointed vice president by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after being selected as the deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization in April.

He met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Jeddah last week during his first regional visit following his appointment.


UK maritime agency reports incident northwest of UAE port

Updated 11 May 2025
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UK maritime agency reports incident northwest of UAE port

CAIRO: The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Sunday it received a report of an incident 80 nautical miles off the United Arab Emirates’ Jebel Ali port.
UKMTO said a vessel in the area reported a small craft colliding with it and was seen attempting to collide with other vessels in the area, adding that all crew were safe.