Hamas ‘alive and will survive’ Sinwar’s death: Iran’s Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Hamas ‘will not end’ with the death of its leader, as the group vows no hostages will be released until the Gaza war ends.

Supporters of Yemen's Houthis gather with pictures of Hamas slain leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally held on Friday in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa. Picture: Mohammed Huwais/AFP

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Hamas was alive and will survive despite the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli military operation in Gaza.

“His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front” against Israel, “but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar”, Khamenei said.

The Palestinian Islamist movement “Hamas is alive and will remain alive”, he said in a statement.

Sinwar “was the shining figure of resistance and struggle”, Khamenei said in his first remarks on Sinwar — seen as the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that sparked the Gaza war — since he was killed on Wednesday.

“He stood with unwavering determination against the cruel and aggressive enemy and slapped them with tact and courage,” he added.

“He left behind the irreparable blow of October 7, 2023 as his legacy in the history of this region, and then he soared with honour and pride to the ascension of the martyrs.”

Iran does not recognise Israel, its sworn enemy, and has made its support for the Palestinian cause one of the pillars of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Sinwar, long a man in the shadows, took over as head of Hamas after the killing in July of its leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran.

The killing has been widely blamed on Israel, which has never claimed responsibility.

Hamas vows no hostage release until war ends

Hamas has vowed it will not release the hostages it seized during its October 7 attack on Israel until the Gaza war ends, as it mourned the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar.

The killing of Sinwar, the mastermind of the deadliest attack in Israeli history, had raised hopes of a turning point in the war, including for families of the Israeli hostages and Gazans enduring a dire humanitarian crisis.

However as Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya mourned Sinwar in a video statement on Friday, he reiterated the Palestinian group’s position that no hostages would be released “unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops”.

Supporters of Yemen's Houthis gather with pictures of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally held in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa. Picture: Mohammed Huwais/AFP

Turkey offers ‘condolences’ to Hamas after Sinwar’s death

Turkey’s foreign minister on Friday offered his “condolences” to Hamas officials at a meeting in Istanbul following the death of Sinwar.

Hakan Fidan “received the president of the Hamas Shura Council Mohammed Ismail Darwish and members of the political bureau” to whom “he presented his condolences for the martyr Yahya Sinwar,” the ministry said in a statement.

Iran, Hezbollah, Afghanistan’s Taliban government and Yemen’s Houthi rebels all mourned the death of Sinwar, vowing continued support for their Palestinian ally Hamas.

At a demonstration in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, resident Mutahhar al-Khatib said Sinwar’s death “was shocking news”.

“But if Sinwar is martyred, there will be 10 more in his place,” he said. The Palestine Liberation Organization also expressed its condolences over the “martyrdom of the great

national leader Yahya Sinwar”.

Israel says ‘aerial target’ from Syria intercepted

Reports also emerged on Friday of an “aerial target” approaching Israel from Syria.

Israel is fighting a war on two fronts, one with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the other with Hamas in Gaza, while it also faces attacks from Iran-backed militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

“A short while ago, a suspicious aerial target that approached Israeli territory from Syria was intercepted by the IAF (air force) … before it crossed into Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the drone was launched by the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq group.

“Israeli air defences in the occupied Syrian Golan targeted two drones launched by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, coming from Iraq through Syrian territory,” the war monitor said in a statement.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of pro-Iran militias, has regularly claimed launching drones targeting Israel.

Israeli authorities rarely comment publicly about individual strikes or operations involving Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow Iran to expand its foothold in the region.

Iran conducted a missile strike on Israel on October 1, for which Israel has vowed to retaliate.

Israeli forces also pummelled Gaza with air strikes on Friday, with rescuers recovering the bodies of three Palestinian children from the rubble of their home in the north of the territory, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

“We always thought that when this moment arrived the war would end and our lives would return to normal,” Jemaa Abou Mendi, a 21-year-old Gaza resident said.

“But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated.”

Sinwar was Israel’s most wanted man, and his death – announced by the Israeli military on Thursday – deals a major blow to the already weakened group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.

While it did not spell the end of the war, it was “the beginning of the end,” he added.

‘Opportunity’

Some hailed the news of Sinwar’s death as a sign of better things to come. US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said Sinwar’s death was “an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas”.

In a joint statement, Biden and the leaders of Germany, France and Britain emphasised “the immediate necessity to bring the hostages home to their families, for ending the war in Gaza, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians”.

Former US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in elections next month, said Sinwar’s death would make it “easier” to achieve peace.

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged Israel’s government and international mediators to leverage “this major achievement to secure hostages’ return”.

In August, Netanyahu called Sinwar “the only obstacle to a hostage deal”. Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of killed hostage Yoram Metzger, said with Sinwar dead it is “unacceptable” that the hostages would “stay in captivity even one more day”.

But she added: “We (are) afraid that Netanyahu does not intend on stopping the war, nor does he intend to bring the hostages back.”

The Israeli military said Sinwar’s bodyguard, Mahmoud amdan, was “eliminated” on Friday close to where the Hamas chief was killed.

‘Hell on Earth’

Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants took 251 hostages back into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.

Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages has killed 42,500 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.

A “conservative” estimate puts the death toll among children in Gaza at over 14,100, said James Elder, spokesman of the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.

For the one million children currently in the besieged territory, “Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth,” Elder said.

Criticism has been mounting over the civilian toll and lack of food and aid reaching Gaza, where the UN has warned of famine.

A man stands near the rubble of a building levelled by an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Abbassiyeh on October 18. Picture: Bilal Kashmar / AFP

‘Devastation’ in Lebanon

Israel is also fighting a war with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The two sides had exchanged rocket fire since the October 7 attack, with Israel sending ground troops across the Lebanese border last month.

On Friday, the Israeli military said it had destroyed Hezbollah’s regional command centre with an air strike.

Hezbollah said it fired a salvo of rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa and areas to its north.

The group later said it launched “a swarm of explosives-laden drones” at an “air missile defence base” east of the central Israeli city of Hadera.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon warned that the escalating war “is causing widespread destruction of towns and villages” in the country’s south.

Since late September, the war has left at least 1418 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The war has also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.