Israeli officials said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel Defense Forces in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Hamas has not commented publicly on the reports.

Sinwar was the mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people and set off Israel’s year-long war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel has made killing him a key objective, and may now be more willing to scale back its military operations in Gaza.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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      16 days ago

      He was particularly hostile to peace with Israel (and Israel was particularly hostile to peace with him). Furthermore (according to my understanding) Hamas doesn’t have much formal structure; it isn’t like the USA where the government is ready to accept the vice president as the leader if the president dies. I assume that Sinwar prepared a successor, but there’s still probably no one who knows all the same things and has the loyalty of all the same people.

        • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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          16 days ago

          He also wrote that Netanyahu will pay any price at the expense of the public in Israel, provided that his rule does not fall "and therefore, to the horror of it, there is no chance that the war will end in the foreseeable future. Neither voluntarily nor according to logic. Its continuation forever is the only barrier that will prevent his personal catastrophe.

          Yep, the ongoing war is delaying a corruption trial against Bibi where I think he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, so he’s going to keep this war going forever if he can

        • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          Israel is not the USA. It doesn’t have the economy to support a forever war, even with US help. Most of its soldiers are reservists who need to go back to their jobs sooner rather than later.

            • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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              16 days ago

              I’m not a fan of Netanyahu but that article isn’t a hard-headed political analysis. Even Netanyahu is constrained by physical reality; he might not have a realistic plan for peace, but that doesn’t mean he can continue war indefinitely.

      • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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        16 days ago

        You don’t think that whoever survives the horror they just have been through on Gaza will eventually replace them?

        • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          No, I don’t think the popular theory that organizations like Hamas exist because people want revenge is correct. The critical component seems to be a power vacuum; in its absence humans will tolerate anything. If Israel establishes order in Gaza by some means (and by that I don’t just mean armed patrols through hostile territory) then there can be occasional terrorist attacks but no organized resistance.

          The problem that I see is actually that there’s little precedent for establishing order in circumstances like this while acting with the humanitarian constraints that Israel does have. The USA failed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia succeeded in Chechnya but Israel cannot (and should not) even come close to the level of brutality Russia employed.

          • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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            16 days ago

            Yeah if Israel extends it’s apartheid into Gaza, that’ll bring peace in the region for sure.

            /S

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Meh, it’s not a bad thing.

      Killing Hamas (who did Oct 7) should make it easier to put things back together afterwards.

      Bibi has to go first though, obviously, he’s 10 Sinwars.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      15 days ago

      I think it makes it a bit more difficult to escalate and therefore help elect Trump. For Bibi, Sinwar being at large is an unequivocal argument to keep on keeping on in Gaza. Now that he’s gone, he’ll have to use flimsier ones and whoever might push back, could push back harder.