After the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the West hopes for peace. Meanwhile, Hamas allies celebrate him as a “martyr of the resistance” and express their condolences.
The former leader of the Islamist Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, was shot in the head. “The cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head,” senior pathologist at the National Center for Forensics in Tel Aviv, Chen Kugel, told US television channel CNN. He had carried out the autopsy of the Hamas leader’s body.
“He has a bullet in his head and a serious injury to his brain,” said the forensic expert. Sinwar also suffered injuries from shrapnel and masonry falling on him. The cause of his death was the shot in the head, said Kugel.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Sinwar was killed on Wednesday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. After he and two other gunmen were discovered by chance, Sinwar hid in a house and an Israeli tank fired a grenade into the building, The Times of Israel newspaper reported. The media later published photos of what was believed to be Sinwar’s body lying among the rubble with severe head injuries.
The dead man’s finger was cut off in order to determine his identity using a DNA test, said Kugel. “After the lab created a genetic profile, we compared it to the profile we had of Sinwar from his time as a prisoner. This is how we were finally able to identify him based on his DNA.”
Yahya Sinwar hailed as a “brilliant resistance figure”.
However, the death of the previous leader is not the end of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization. Hamas is “alive and will survive,” said Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The loss was painful for the front of the resistance against Israel, “but it will by no means stop with Sinwar’s martyrdom,” Khamenei said on Saturday.
Sinwar is “a brilliant figure of resistance and struggle” against Israel, Khamenei added. “He stood with unshakable determination against the cruel enemy and aggressor and slapped him with tact and courage.”
The Islamist, known as the “Butcher of Khan Yunis” because of his brutality in dealing with political opponents, was once sentenced to a long prison sentence for the murder of four suspected collaborators and two Israeli soldiers and served over 20 years in Israeli prison. In 2011, he was one of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit held in Gaza.
Türkiye receives Hamas representatives
As Western politicians hope for an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed his “condolences” at a meeting with Hamas representatives. He received on Friday the president of Hamas’ Shura Council, Ismail Darwish, as well as Hamas Politburo members, to whom he expressed “condolences for the martyr Yahja Sinwar,” Fidan’s ministry said.
This is the Turkish authorities’ first reaction to Sinwar’s death. The meeting also discussed the “status of the recent negotiations on a ceasefire agreement that enables the exchange of hostages and prisoners,” it said. “Fidan reiterates that Turkey will use all diplomatic means to mobilize the international community against the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was close to Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniya. Hanija was killed in Tehran in July.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
