PM: War can end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, frees hostages

Israeli leaders rejoice in Sinwar’s death; PM: ‘The beginning of the day after Hamas’

Netanyahu tells terror operatives that those who hand over hostages will be allowed to live; far-right lawmakers say now not the time to let up on military pressure for captives

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a video statement on the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on October 17, 2024. (Screen capture)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a video statement on the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on October 17, 2024. (Screen capture)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar marks “the beginning of the day after Hamas,” but warned that his death would not mark the end of the war in the Gaza Strip unless Hamas surrenders and frees all the hostages, as a torrent of reactions celebrating the terror leader’s elimination poured in from Israeli public figures.

Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, was shot dead Wednesday along with two other terrorists in a firefight in Rafah, in southern Gaza. He was definitively identified by Israel on Thursday evening.

In a video statement following formal confirmation by the IDF of Sinwar’s killing, Netanyahu said the Hamas leader’s demise was an opportunity for Gazans “to finally break free from [Hamas] tyranny.”

“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza,” he promised. “To the Hamas terrorists, I say: Your leaders are fleeing and they will be eliminated.”

The premier said Sinwar’s killing would serve to make it clear to critics in Israel and abroad why his government insisted on continuing its year-long war against Hamas, and in particular “why we insisted, in the face of all the pressures, to enter Rafah, the fortified stronghold of Hamas where Sinwar and many of the murderers hid.”

The US and its allies had voiced strong aversion to Israel’s offensive in the southernmost Gaza city before it was launched in May, fearing it would lead to massive civilian casualties — a concern that proved unfounded.

Turning to the families of hostages, Netanyahu said the killing of Sinwar was “an important moment” in the war. “We will continue with all our strength until the return of all of your loved ones, who are our loved ones,” he vowed.

Freeing the hostages would bring the end of the war closer, the premier added, but warned that it was not yet over.

In a subsequent English-language video, however, Netanyahu said: “This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.”

In his Hebrew statement, Netanyahu addressed Gaza’s civilians, telling them: “Sinwar ruined your life.”

“He told you he was a lion, but in reality, he was hiding in a dark den,” the premier said, “and he was killed when he fled in a panic from our soldiers.”

Demonstrators call for the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip at a protest outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, October 17, 2024, soon after Israel confirmed the killing by the IDF in Gaza of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Netanyahu said that Israel would guarantee that those holding hostages would be allowed to live if they were to lay down their weapons and release the captives.

He cautioned, however, that “whoever harms our hostages, his blood will be on his head. We will come to a reckoning with him.”

Read: Full text of Netanyahu’s address after killing of Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar

Netanyahu’s call for Hamas operatives to surrender was echoed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said that the “vile murderer and terrorist” had been killed “while on the run.”

“He didn’t die as a commander, but as someone who only cared for himself,” Gallant said. “This is a clear message to all of our enemies — the IDF will reach anyone who attempts to harm the citizens of Israel or our security forces, and we will bring you to justice.”

Sinwar’s death was also “a clear message to residents of Gaza,” Gallant said. “The man who brought disaster and death to the Gaza Strip, the man who made you suffer as a result of his murderous actions — the end of this man has come. It is time to go out, release the hostages, raise your hands, surrender.”

As with Netanyahu, Gallant also addressed bereaved families and the families of the hostages, telling them that Sinwar’s death was proof that Israel is “doing everything in order to reach those who harmed your loved ones and to free the hostages and return them to their families.”

At the Rafah site where Sinwar was killed, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told troops the IDF did not have intelligence ahead of time that the Hamas leader was there, but “your professionalism, determination, and the precise identification and awareness” had led to his death nonetheless.

He said the Southern Command and Gaza Division’s decision to hold on to some territory in Gaza and actively operate there was proven correct.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi visits the site where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Rafah on October 17, 2024. (IDF)

The calls for Hamas operatives to surrender and thereby save their own lives were echoed by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and by members of the opposition, including Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and National Unity chair Benny Gantz.

In an Arabic-language post on X, Ohana warned Hamas members to lay down their arms, saying that “a year ago” Sinwar had been victorious.

“Now he is eliminated,” Ohana said. “Where will you be in a year? Return the hostages, lay down your weapons, save your lives.”

Like Netanyahu, Gantz said that while Sinwar’s death was an “important achievement,” it did not mark the end of the war.

The IDF “will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip for years to come,” the former war cabinet minister said, adding that Israel must leverage recent achievements, including the death of Sinwar, “to bring about the return of the hostages and the replacement of Hamas’s rule.”

Lapid, meanwhile, called on the Israeli government to “take advantage of the opportunity for a decisive move regarding the hostages.”

“Strive for a comprehensive deal and also offer monetary rewards and safe passage to anyone who brings hostages to our forces,” Lapid wrote on X.

‘A military solution to terrorism’

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on the IDF to increase military pressure on the Gaza Strip in the wake of Sinwar’s death, and dismissed calls for Israel to pursue a new hostage deal.

“Now the IDF must make sure that there is no resident of Gaza who does not know that Sinwar is dead. It must increase intense military pressure in the Strip, and at the same time offer safe passage and financial reward to those who return our hostages and agree to lay down their arms and leave the Strip,” Smotrich wrote on X.

Religious Zionist party head MK Bezalel Smotrich with Head of the Otzma Yehudit party MK Itamar Ben Gvir at a vote at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

“After decades, we are proving that there is a military solution to terrorism,” the far-right minister asserted.

He later rebuffed sentiments expressed by US officials and others that Sinwar’s death could provide an opportunity to end the war in Gaza.

“I hear talk overseas about an ‘opportunity to stop the war’ coming from those who tried to pressure us to stop the war a long time ago and to prevent us from entering Rafah,” Smotrich said, adding that those same critics “now welcome the elimination of Sinwar, which was made possible thanks to our determination and persistence in fighting in Gaza.”

IDF soldiers carry the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from the building where he was killed in Rafah, Gaza on October 17, 2024. (Courtesy)

If they are aiming for a “surrender deal” they can “forget about it,” Smotrich said. “We will not stop a moment before the complete destruction of Hamas, the return of all the abductees and the removal of the threat posed by Gaza towards Israel.”

“The only deal on the table” is the complete surrender of Hamas and unconditional release of the hostages, Smotrich asserted.

Ben Gvir likewise called for Israel to “continue with all our strength until absolute victory.”

New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, a former bitter critic of Netanyahu who recently buried the hatchet with the premier to join the security cabinet, wrote on X that it was “good that the government led by Netanyahu did not bow under the heavy political pressures and did not listen to the ‘advice’ of all the ‘television studio experts’ and insisted on completing the job in Rafah.”

A warning to Iran

In his video address, Netanyahu looked further afield than the war-torn Gaza Strip, to Iran and its various proxy groups scattered across the Middle East.

The premier said that Sinwar’s death, and the killing of many other Iranian-backed terror leaders in recent months, would allow the people of the Middle East “a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future — a future of peace, a future in which the entire region thrives. Together we can push away the curse and advance the blessing.”

“In Gaza, in Beirut, in the streets of the entire area, the darkness is withdrawing and the light is rising,” he said, and listed Hamas and Hezbollah leaders eliminated: “Deif, Haniyeh, Sinwar, Nasrallah, Mohsen, Aqil and many of their partners are no more.”

Head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, left, and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, at a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the terror group, in Gaza City, Dec. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

In a message to dozens of his counterparts around the world, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Sinwar’s death was “a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of radical Islam led by Iran.”

President Isaac Herzog took a similar line as he commended the IDF, the Shin Bet and security services for eliminating “the arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar” who was “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians, citizens of other countries, and the murder of thousands of innocent people.”

Sinwar’s “evil endeavors were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East,” Herzog stated, adding that “now, more than ever, we must act in every way possible to bring back the 101 hostages who are still being held in horrific conditions by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.”

Numerous other MKs and ministers posted on social media to fete Sinwar’s death and hail the IDF’s ongoing operations against Hamas.

IDF troops stand over the body believed to be Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on October 17, 2024. (Courtesy)

Architect of October 7

Sinwar was not being intentionally targeted when he was killed along with two other terrorists, but rather was present at the scene when troops opened fire on a group of combatants on the ground floor of a building in Rafah in an incident that began on Wednesday.

A tank strike was ordered against the building, which partially collapsed the structure. When the soldiers entered the building on Thursday, they realized that one of the dead terrorists “looked very much like” Sinwar.

Confirmation that the body was indeed Sinwar was finalized on the basis of DNA and other testing.

Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar speaks during a press conference in Gaza City on 30 May 2019. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

The leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, Sinwar was the architect of the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza. Ninety-seven of the hostages are still held captive in Gaza, along with two other Israelis thought to be alive after close to a decade of captivity, and the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza in 2014.

The terror chief became overall leader of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran blast in July, when he was selected by Hamas’s 50-strong Shura Council, a consultative body composed of officials elected by Hamas members in four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and security prisoners in Israeli jails.

Negotiations under Sinwar for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza have sputtered for the better part of a year, with Israel and the US accusing the Hamas leader of being a key roadblock with what they deemed unreasonable demands.

Sinwar reportedly recently renewed contact with mediators for a potential hostage-ceasefire deal after weeks of silence that had stirred speculation he might have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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