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

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

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

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

Sinwar was confirmed dead by the Israeli 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 had attempted to throw a stick at the drone and was killed seconds later. He was 61.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the soldiers who found Sinwar’s body also found a weapon, a flak jacket, and 40,000 shekels (about $10,800).

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 that 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 that 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 December 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 Oct. 18 that made no mention of Sinwar but said Israel was mistaken if it believes that killing Hamas’s leaders means the end of the movement “and the struggle of the Palestinian people.”

Protesters on the streets of Tel Aviv on the night of Oct. 17 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.

“Sinwar’s terrorists murdered in cold blood 1,200 people, that’s elderly people, Holocaust survivors, children.” He added 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, aimed at the people of Gaza, on the Israeli Defense Forces’ account on social media platform X: “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 makeshift camp for the internally displaced in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Oct. 17, 2024. Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, 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.”

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, said on Oct. 18 that Sinwar’s death would help the prospect of peace in Gaza.

“I think it makes it easier,” he told reporters as he arrived in Detroit for campaign events. Trump also said he plans to talk to Netanyahu soon.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.