THE DEATH OF YAHYA SINWAR, ANOTHER HARSH BLOW FOR HAMAS

In a short space of time, Israel has managed to assassinate two top leaders of the radical Palestinian movement “Hamas”. The latest was Yahya Sinwar, who died last Wednesday in the area of ​​Tal Al Sultan, in a clash with Israeli forces south of Gaza. “Tsahal” saw a group of armed Palestinians and fired a missile and several rounds from an armored vehicle at them. Among these three people was Sinwar.

Sinwar had replaced Ismael Haniyeh, killed in Tehran last July in a strike by the Jewish air force on the building where he had a temporary residence. These two deaths have allowed the war criminal, Netanyahu, and his government to declare victory, forgetting that “Hamas” are not only men, but an idea of ​​magnitude in the minds of young Palestinians.

Hamas emerged in 1987 during the first Intifada. Its origins date back to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement from which it drew its ideology. In 2006, the movement won elections in Gaza, which led to the departure of supporters of Fatah, the main Palestinian political party founded by Yasser Arafat, from the enclave.

For two decades, Hamas has ruled Gaza, sometimes speaking out violently against the existence of Israel, although its main objective has always been the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

But Hamas made a serious mistake when it entered into a line of action that included terrorist acts. In the West, it is considered a dangerous terrorist group.

On October 7, 2003, Hamas carried out a terrorist attack inside Jewish territory, killing 1,250 civilians and soldiers. and capturing 240 others. Since then, Israel, under the direction of Prime Minister Netanyahu, has vowed to eliminate the group and its leaders. IDF forces invaded Gaza for that purpose.

Israel claims that Iran and Turkey are the ones financing Hamas. That they support the group politically is true, but when it comes to funding and arming it, this remains a matter of dispute. The movement has also managed to set up its own workshops where it makes drones and other weapons, such as medium-range rockets.

What is established is that another radical movement, the Lebanese Hezbollah, supplies Hamas with weapons and even provides it with military experts who serve as advisers. Hamas is the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Resistance Movement. Its supporters number in the hundreds, most of them young.

Its founder was the cleric Ahmed Yassine, who was killed by Israel in March 2004 when he was leaving a mosque in Gaza where he had performed the obligatory prayers. In 2017, the group published a manifesto in which it for the first time abandoned the obligation to kill Jews, focusing on the creation of an independent Palestine. Hamas also does not recognise the existence of Israel.

Will Hamas disappear after Sinwar's death? Among the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, no one believes that this is possible, although it is likely that the group will enter a kind of "hibernation" for some time. Israel also considers Sinwar to have been the organiser of the terrorist operation of 7 October.