- Title: Sinwar's death could offer 'off-ramp' to conflict - Middle East Security analyst
- Date: 17th October 2024
- Summary: WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 17, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY, MIDDLE EAST SECURITY, SENIOR FELLOW AND DIRECTOR, JONATHAN LORD, SAYING: “Sinwar, for those who believe in Hamas' cause and purpose, has died a martyr. And while Gaza is in ruins, Palestinians are suffering, many will make the argument that he has strategically won the war already - because for a new generation of people around the world, he has brought this conflict front and center. And he has largely been successful in the information space, in making Hamas appear to many of the uninitiated or newly initiated, who are unaware of this conflict, as the actual preeminent and legitimate representatives of Palestinian ambitions for statehood and freedom.”
- Embargoed: 31st October 2024 17:49
- Keywords: Gaza Hamas Israel Middle East Netanyahu Sinwar war
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA002267117102024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Middle East Security expert Jonathan Land told Reuters on Thursday (October 17) that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could offer an "off-ramp" to the current crisis.
"It is quite possible that we take this moment as an inflection point," said Land, Senior Fellow and Director of Middle East Security at the Center for a New American Future (CNAS). “Many are hopeful that with Sinwar out of the way, new leadership is going to want to find a way to end this conflict," he said.
Israel said on Thursday that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, had been killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave. The Israeli military said it had killed Sinwar in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday (October 16).
His killing marks a huge success for Israel and a pivotal event in the year-long conflict. There are a number of possible scenarios for what happens next, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would go on. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Sinwar, who was named as the overall leader of Hamas following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, was believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.
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