Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s killing was an essential assassination

Yahya Sinwar speaks during a meeting in Gaza City on April 30, 2022. Picture: AFP

The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was an absolutely essential part of Israel’s war aims in Gaza.

All human death is tragedy, but this was a comprehensively justified assassination.

It’s a victory for Israel and for its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a hopeful moment for the beleaguered Palestinian people, as well as Israelis, and perhaps a chance to resolve the military clashes now under way more quickly.

There is an obvious contradiction between the Albanese government saying that Hamas can have no role in the future governance of Gaza, and welcoming Sinwar’s elimination, yet almost from day one calling for Israel to down arms.

But almost everything the Albanese government has said on this dispute has been fatuous, politically driven and disconnected from reality, so it’s unlikely to change now.

Israel’s war aims in Gaza were straightforward and onerous. It aimed to destroy Hamas as a military force, capture or kill the Hamas commanders who ordered the October 7 atrocities, re-establish the security of Israeli communities near the Gaza ­border, greatly diminish the power of Iran’s ring-of-fire proxy forces, of which Hamas is one, and re-establish the effectiveness of its deterrence within the Middle East more generally.

Israel has almost identical military aims in the actions now under way against the other ­Iranian terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. Within those war aims, ­Israel still has humanitarian ­obligations to the populations among whom its campaigns must necessarily take place.

Sinwar is being romanticised in some reports. The essence of the man was that he was a murderous terrorist leader, who espoused a hate-filled Islamist ideology, and who enjoyed inflicting pain on victims, especially Palestinians who didn’t share the Hamas ideology.

With Sinwar gone, there is only one obstacle to an ­immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and that is the release of the ­remaining Israeli hostages.

We don’t know how many of them are dead.

It’s the case today, as it has been the case every day of the last 12 months, that Hamas could end the fighting, and end the suffering of the Palestinian people it allegedly represents, by releasing Israel’s hostages.

People cheer and wave an Israeli national flags as they celebrate the news of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in the Israeli costal city of Netanya, on October 17, 2024. Picture: AFP

Their continued detention by Hamas can only be for two reasons.

One, Hamas enjoys torturing innocent people.

Two, Hamas believes that Israel suffers international condemnation and isolation every day that the conflict continues. So Hamas is indifferent to the suffering of its own people, so long as it believes Israel continues to incur political damage.

In turning so aggressively against Israel, the Albanese Government did exactly what Hamas always wanted.

The release of the hostages is the last remaining Israeli war aim in Gaza. Once they are free, the fighting will stop.

Sinwar was the hardest of hardliners. It’s just conceivable his demise will lead to a more reasonable outlook by whoever replaces him, although if that replacement is Sinwar’s brother, that may not be the case.

So an international government, say the Australian government, which actually cared about the dispute rather than domestic politics, would be putting maximum diplomatic, political and sanctions pressure on Iran, which still controls Hamas, to this end.

It would also pressure those Arab interlocutors which have some modest sway with Hamas. Of course, it’s much easier for the Albanese government to beat up on Israel.

The next big step in this unfolding drama will be Israel’s retaliation to Iran’s recent missile attack. This must surely happen soon or it will be taking place literally as the votes for the next US president are being counted in Pennsylvania.

That timing could add seriously unpredictable and possibly damaging political tensions, and needlessly confuse Israel’s strategic position.

The other thing the Israelis must enlighten the world on soon is their plans for who will run Gaza when the military operation finally ends. Release the Israeli hostages, and the next and more peaceful step for Gaza can take place.