Hezbollah Says It Will Escalate War With Israel After Death of Hamas Leader

Yahya al-Sinwar (C), waves to supporters as he arrives to attend a Hamas rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023. Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images

Hezbollah has said it will escalate the conflict with Israel after Israeli troops killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, while Iran stated that the “resistance will endure.”

Sinwar, 61, was regarded by Israel as the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion, during which Hamas terrorists carried out a massacre across southern Israel, leaving about 1,200 people dead, thousands more wounded, and 251 people taken captive. Israel says Hamas still has 101 hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Sinwar was confirmed dead by Israel’s military on Oct. 17. Israeli mini-drone footage has since emerged showing his final moments: sitting on a sofa with a badly wounded arm, in a bombed-out house, his head covered by a keffiyeh.

He attempted to throw a stick at the drone but was killed seconds later.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the soldiers who found his body also found a weapon, a flak jacket, and 40,000 shekels (about $10,000).

During a televised briefing, Hagari said, “He tried to escape and our forces eliminated him.”

Hezbollah said in an Oct. 18 statement, issued through the al-Manar website it controls, “Based on the directives of the resistance command, the operations room of the Islamic resistance announces a transition to a new and escalatory phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy, which will be reflected in the developments and events of the coming days.”

It did not mention Sinwar’s death but went into detail about the ground war in southern Lebanon and claimed the Israelis had committed 70,000 troops to the fight.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations issued a statement on social media platform X describing Sinwar as a “martyr.”

It contrasted the death of Sinwar, “in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy” with that of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was found hiding in a hole in the ground in Dec. 2003, and was later executed. 

Saddam, a secular Sunni Muslim who led Iraq in a war against Iran in the 1980s, has long been a hate figure for Iran.

The statement added, “As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.”

Hamas issued a statement on Friday which, while giving no mention of Sinwar, said Israel was mistaken if it, “believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people.”

Protesters on the streets of Tel Aviv on Thursday night called for Israel to end its war now that Sinwar was dead.

“One year ago Sinwar, the terrorist chief of Hamas, launched the Oct. 7 massacre against Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech posted on X. “It was the bloodiest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. It was the worst attack on the Jewish state since the founding of Israel.”

Netanyahu said, “Sinwar’s terrorists murdered in cold blood 1,200 people, that’s elderly people, Holocaust survivors, children,” adding that the “mastermind of this day of sheer evil is no more.”

‘Beginning of the End’

In a statement that echoed the words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a 1942 speech, Netanyahu said, “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end.”

He then offered a message to the people of Gaza, “This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.”

Hagari posted a similar message on the IDF’s X account, aimed at the people of Gaza. “Since the beginning of this war that Sinwar started on October 7 — we’ve said: Our war is with Hamas, not the people of Gaza. We mean it.”

A Palestinian child eats at a make-shift camp for the internally displaced in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2024. Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Vice President and Democratic candidate in next month’s election, Kamala Harris, said Sinwar’s death, “gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.”

She said the war, “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.”

The Republican candidate and former President, Donald Trump, has not yet publicly commented on Sinwar’s death.

Last month he told an event in Washington, “Today we have to fight for Israel, but we’re gonna win the fight, so don’t worry about it.”

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.