AFTER SINWAR

Will the killing of Hamas’s leader alter Israel’s war?

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who was killed last week in Gaza by the Israel Defense Force, pictured during a ceremony for Palestinian fighters killed by Israeli air strikes at Yarmouk Stadium on May 24, 2021 in Gaza City. / Photo by Laurent Van der Stockt/Getty Images.

Now, two weeks before America elects a new president, there seems to be no way out of war in the Middle East.

The killing of Yahya Sinwar, the brutal leader of Hamas and mastermind of the October 7 attack, is not going to end Israel’s war against Hamas, and its devastation of the Palestinians in Gaza will continue.

I’ve heard nothing from contacts in Beirut close to Hezbollah—whose troops are putting up a stiff fight as they did in Hezbollah’s 2006 war against Israel—that suggests anything other than a long war ahead. 

President Joe Biden applauded the death of Sinwar and again urged Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call for a ceasefire that might free the remaining hostages taken by Hamas, if any of them remain alive. That Sinwar was found and killed above ground and not in one of the tunnels under Gaza raised questions for me about the alleged brilliance of the Israeli intelligence community, which has at no time in the past year indicated that Sinwar was above ground, surrounded by a few aides or bodyguards and with a large chunk of cash. 

He may have come up from underground for a breath of fresh air, as some Israeli media reports have suggested, leaving the remaining Israeli hostages behind, but he also may have put on sunglasses and pulled down a New York Yankees baseball cap and joined the more unfortunate of his people in chow lines with a plate and spoon.