Sinwar’s Dead; the Genocide Continues - CounterPunch.org
Sinwar’s Dead; the Genocide Continues | | | | | | | | | | | Sinwar’s Dead; the Genocide Continues Jeffrey St. Clair More than 100,000 dead Palestinians later, Israel finally killed Yahya Sinwar. He wasn’t wearing a dress. He was... | | | The Scourging of Gaza: Diary of a Genocidal War More than 100,000 dead Palestinians later, Israel finally killed Yahya Sinwar. He wasn’t wearing a dress. He wasn’t hiding in a tunnel with Israeli hostages. He wasn’t shielded behind women and children. Bodyguards didn’t surround him. AI didn’t track him down. Another Palestinian didn’t rat him out. He hadn’t strapped explosives to his body. | | | | | | | | | | | Yahya Sinwar ‘dressed as a woman’ hiding among Gaza's populace - Daily E... Sinwar has reportedly been moving between hiding places in Gaza, fleeing from the IDF, and possibly hiding as a ... | | | It’s not clear whether the Israelis found Sinwar or Sinwar found the Israelis. According to the IDF, on Wednesday afternoon, a small group of Israeli commandos from the Bislach Brigade (a training unit of the Israeli army) were patrolling the Tal as-Sultan area outside of Rafah when they spotted several Palestinian men who they believed were Hamas fighters. They opened fire on the Palestinians, killing three of the men. One of the Palestinians ducked into a bombed-out building. The Israelis used a drone to search the building. The drone spotted an injured man sitting in an armchair. The man looks at the drone defiantly and throws a stick at it. Israeli commanders notice his resemblance to Sinwar and call it an airstrike, destroying what was left of the damaged building. Fearing his body might be booby-trapped (it wasn’t), Israeli soldiers waited more than an hour to retrieve the body, which was flown back to Israel, where it was confirmed as Sinwar after comparing it to his fingerprints and dental records from his years in Israeli prisons. Sinwar had been at the top of Israel’s hit list since before October 7. He had survived numerous assassination attempts, including a May 2021 Israeli airstrike on his home in Khan Younis. A month after the October 7 attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed that Israeli commandos had surrounded and trapped Sinwar in a Gaza City bunker. A month later, IDF forces raided Sinwar’s house, but found no evidence he’d been living there. In September, Shin Bet said it was possible that Sinwar had been killed in an airstrike, even though Netanyahu and Biden kept blaming him for rejecting various ceasefire proposals. Sinwar might have appreciated the irony of evading capture by a Shin Bet hit squad that had been searching for him for a year and surviving the worst bombing any population has endured since World War II, including the 2000-lb US-made bombs designed to demolish the tunnels he was believed to be hiding in, only to be killed after engaging in a street fight with trainee soldiers from the IDF. Sinwar was 62 years old. He’d been born and raised in a refugee camp in Khan Younis. He studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he became a crucial figure in a group of militant students who later formed a central element in Hamas. In 1989, Sinwar was arrested, tried and sentenced to life in prison for his role in assassinating Palestinian collaborators with Israel. During his years in the Israeli prison system, Sinwar emerged as a leader and spokesperson for Palestinian prisoners. In 2008, he was treated for a cancerous tumor. In 2011, Sinwar was released by Netanyahu as part of the prisoner swap for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar was 52. He’d been held in Israeli prisons for nearly half his life. In 2017, Sinwar was elected Hamas’s leader in Gaza, where he cultivated closer ties with Iran and Hezbollah and, ironically, with the man who’d freed him: Benjamin Netanyahu, who, in an effort to undermine the Palestinian Authority, negotiated through messengers with Sinwar for Hamas to receive financial aid through Qatar and to provide work permits for Palestinian laborers to enter Israel from Gaza. In a 2018 interview with Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, Sinwar explained the logic behind his deal-making with Netanyahu: “I’m not saying I won’t fight anymore. I’m saying I don’t want more wars. We can’t win in a confrontation with a nuclear power, but to the same extent Netanyahu has nothing to game from a new confrontation. It will be the fourth war, and they can’t get the same result as in the first, second, and third. Ultimately, they’ll be forced to re-occupy Gaza. While Netanyahu is trying to get rid of the Palestinians in the West Bank and preserve the Jewish majority, I don’t think he wants to annex territory with two million more Palestinians.” At some point, most likely with the Biden-Harris administration pushing the Saudis to abandon the Palestinians and normalize relations with Israel, that calculation changed, and Sinwar launched the fateful attacks of October 7. “He died fighting and confronting the occupation army to his final moments,” said Khalil al-Hayya, a Sinwar deputy who lives in Qatar. After Israel confirmed Sinwar’s death, Biden released a statement bragging about the role US intelligence and Special Ops forces had been playing in the year-long hunt for Sinwar: “Shortly after the October 7 massacres, I directed Special Operations personnel and our intelligence professionals to work side-by-side with their Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza.” There’s no evidence that either US or Israeli intelligence played any role in tracking down Sinwar. David Witty, former US Special Forces commander: “Israeli officials: the events surrounding the death of Hamas leader Sinwar were just an accident. This was not based on intelligence.” The full text of Biden’s statement on the death of Sinwar: Early this morning, Israeli authorities informed my national security team that a mission they conducted in Gaza likely killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. DNA tests have now confirmed that Sinwar is dead. This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world. As the leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Sinwar was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, and citizens from over 30 countries. He was the mastermind of the October 7th massacres, rapes, and kidnappings. It was on his orders that Hamas terrorists invaded Israel to intentionally – and with unspeakable savagery – kill and massacre civilians, a Holocaust survivor, children in front of their parents, and parents in front of their children. Over 1,200 people were killed on that day, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, including 46 Americans. More than 250 were taken hostage, with 101 still missing. That number includes seven Americans, four of whom are believed to still be alive and held by Hamas terrorists. Sinwar is the man most responsible for this, and for so much of what followed. Shortly after the October 7 massacres, I directed Special Operations personnel and our intelligence professionals to work side-by-side with their Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza. With our intelligence help, the IDF relentlessly pursued Hamas’s leaders, flushing them out of their hiding places and forcing them onto the run. There has rarely been a military campaign like this, with Hamas leaders living and moving through hundreds of miles of tunnels, organized in multiple stories underground, determined to protect themselves with no care for the civilians suffering above ground. Today, however, proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes. To my Israeli friends, this is no doubt a day of relief and reminiscence, similar to the scenes witnessed throughout the United States after President Obama ordered the raid to kill Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Israel has had every right to eliminate the leadership and military structure of Hamas. Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another October 7. I will be speaking soon with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them, to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all, which has caused so much devastation to innocent people. 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. Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists. But much work remains before us. + The full text of Kamala Harris’ statement on the death of Yahya Sinwar. | | | | | | | | | | | Remarks by Vice President Harris on the Death of Yahya Sinwar | The Whit... The White House University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeMilwaukee, Wisconsin 1:13 P.M. CDT THE VICE PRESIDENT: Today, Israel confirmed... | | | Today, Israel confirmed that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is dead and justice has been served, and the United States, Israel, and the entire world are better off as a result. Sinwar was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people, including the victims of October 7 and hostages killed in Gaza. He had American blood on his hands. Today, I can only hope that the families of the victims of Hamas feel a sense and measure of relief. Sinwar was the mastermind of October 7, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust — a terrorist attack that killed 1,200 innocent people and included horrific sexual violence and more than 250 hostages taken into Gaza, including 7 Americans, living and deceased, who remain in captivity; a terrorist attack that triggered a devastating war in Gaza — a war that has led to unconscionable suffering of many innocent Palestinians and greater instability throughout the Middle East. In the past year, American special operations and intelligence personnel have worked closely with their Israeli counterparts to locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders, and I commend their work. And I will say to any terrorist who kills Americans, threatens the American people, or threatens our troops or our interests, know this: We will always bring you to justice. Israel has a right to defend itself, and the threat Hamas poses to Israel must be eliminated. Today, there is clear progress toward that goal. Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated. This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. And it is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power. We will not give up on these goals, and I will always work to create a future of peace, dignity, and security for all.” Call Dr. Pangloss. These vaporous statements from Biden and Harris exist in a political void. They want people to believe they are powerless to stop the killing, when the killing is being done by the arms and intelligence they’ve supplied and continue to supply Israel. + Meanwhile, Israel has made clear that Sinwar’s death will not stop their genocidal operations in Gaza. + Netanyahu on Sinwar’s death: “This is not the end of the war in Gaza. It is the beginning of the end…The axis of terror that was built by Iran is collapsing before our eyes. [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah is gone. His deputy Mohsen is gone. [Hamas political leader Ismail] Haniyeh is gone. [Hamas military leader Mohammed] Deif is gone. Sinwar is gone. The reign of terror that the Iranian regime has imposed on its own people, and on the peoples of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen—this, too, will come to an end.” + Smotrich: “Now the IDF must make sure that there is no resident of Gaza who does not know that Sinwar is dead. It must increase intense military pressure in the Strip, and at the same time offer safe passage and financial reward to those who return our hostages and agree to lay down their arms and leave the Strip. After decades, we are proving that there is a military solution to terrorism…I hear talk overseas about an ‘opportunity to stop the war’ coming from those who tried to pressure us to stop the war a long time ago and to prevent us from entering Rafah. These same people now welcome the elimination of Sinwar, which was made possible thanks to our determination and persistence in fighting in Gaza. We will not stop a moment before the complete destruction of Hamas, the return of all the abductees and the removal of the threat posed by Gaza towards Israel.” + Even Benny Gantz, hailed as an enlightened alternative to Netanyahu by many in the West, proclaimed after learning of Sinwar’s death: “The circle is closed, but the mission is not over. The IDF will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip for years to come.” + Quoting senior defense officials, Haaretz reported this week that the Netanyahu government is “not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.” Statement from Hamas’ political leader, Dr. Basem Naim, on the killing of Sinwar: It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people. They can believe what they want, and this is not the first time they said that. They repeated that same statements when they killed Sheikh Yaseen, Dr. Ranteesy, and Commander Shehadeh (the first chief of the AlQassam Brigades), but Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine. Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated. We believe our destiny is one of two good things: victory or martyrdom. Yes it’s very painful and distressing to lose beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders like ours, but what we are sure of is that we are eventually victorious; this is the outcome for all people who fought for their liberty. + Shaiel Ben-Ephraim: “The chatter on Arab social media makes it very clear that releasing the drone footage and pictures of Sinwar has backfired. It has added to the myth, which makes him a folk hero and strengthens Hamas. Even people who disliked him are paying tribute.” + Daniel Levy: “Those who are suggesting that this will be a mission accomplished moment that will somehow lead us to a ceasefire haven’t been paying attention… Netanyahu isn’t at war with Sinwar or Hamas. Israel is at war with the Palestinian people.” + After viewing the photos of Sinwar’s mangled corpse, I was reminded of this passage from John Berger’s Photographs of Agony: “Confrontation with a photographed moment of agony can mask a far more extensive and urgent confrontation. Usually the wars which we are shown are being fought directly or indirectly in “our” name. What we are shown horrifies us. The next step should be for us to confront our own lack of political freedom. In the political systems as they exist, we have no legal opportunity of effectively influencing the conduct of wars waged in our name. To realize this and to act accordingly is the only effective way of responding to what the photograph shows. Yet the double violence of the photographed moment works against the realization. That is why they can be published with impunity.” -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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