TEL AVIV: Some Israelis felt relief with the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even as the fate of nearly 100 hostages in Gaza still stirred anxiety.
Israeli authorities long accused Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack, the deadliest in the country’s history.
Hamas militants overran portions of southern Israel, shooting people, storming military bases and attacking a music festival where they killed at least 370 people.
It was an unprecedented attack that deeply shook the country.
For some, the killing of the October 7 architect brought some closure following a year of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s like closing the circle, bringing things full circle,” Dolev, a 29-year-old Tel Aviv resident, told AFP, asking to use only a single name.
“It feels like we’ve finished what we set out to do, and I hope this will also lead to an end,” he added, though since late September Israel has also been fighting on another front, with intensified air strikes and troops on the ground in Lebanon against Hamas ally Hezbollah.
“I hope it will lead to the end of the war, the return of the hostages, and for quieter days,” Dolev said.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures that includes hostages killed in captivity.
Militants took 251 people hostage during the attack. Ninety-seven remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The war triggered an Israeli military retaliation that has killed at least 42,500 people in Gaza, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN has acknowledged as reliable.
As the military targeted Hamas fighters and leaders while searching for any sign of Sinwar, the war reduced large parts of the Palestinian territory to rubble.
Israeli commanders believed Sinwar hid in the maze of tunnels Hamas built beneath Gaza, while Israeli media had reported he was likely to be surrounded by hostages.
But when the Hamas chief was finally cornered and killed by the Israeli army, he was above ground with just two other fighters and no captives in sight, the military said.
Following the announcement of Sinwar’s death, Israelis along with leaders from across the West called on Israel to seize the moment to leverage a deal to release the remaining captives.
“To be honest, I only thought about the hostages, whether this will help move any deal forward, if there will now be a way to bring them back, or if, on the contrary, this is pushing a deal further away,” said Sharon Sborovsky, 31, from Tel Aviv.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met earlier Friday to discuss the aftermath of Sinwar’s death, including the fate of the hostages.
A statement released by the president’s office said that “a significant window of opportunity opened — including the promotion of the return of the hostages and the elimination of Hamas.”
Later in the day, Hamas said it had no plans to release the hostages until Israel ends its “aggression against our people in Gaza,” withdraws from the territory and frees jailed Palestinians.
And while the death of Sinwar marked a milestone in the war, many Israelis were not yet ready to celebrate.
“It is nice to have killed the leader of Hamas,” said Yonatan, a 34-year-old resident of Haifa.
“But we hope that all the hostages will come back, then we can start the party.”
Relief, anxiety in Israel after Sinwar’s killing
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Relief, anxiety in Israel after Sinwar’s killing
- “It’s like closing the circle, bringing things full circle,” Dolev, a 29-year-old Tel Aviv resident, told AFP
- “To be honest, I only thought about the hostages, whether this will help move any deal forward, if there will now be a way to bring them back,” said Sharon Sborovsky
Lebanon’s new president stresses urgency of Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal
- The ceasefire requires Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days
- UN to exert utmost efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal within the set deadline under the ceasefire terms
According to a statement by the Lebanese presidency on X, Aoun told Guterres during a meeting in Beirut that continued Israeli breaches were a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and the agreed ceasefire deal.
The ceasefire, which took effect on Nov. 27 and was brokered by the United States and France, requires Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, and for Hezbollah to remove all its fighters and weapons from the south.
Guterres said the UN would exert utmost efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal within the set deadline under the ceasefire terms, according to the statement.
He had said on Friday the Israeli military’s continued occupation of territory in south Lebanon and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory were violations of a UN resolution upon which the ceasefire is based.
Despite the deal, Israeli forces have continued strikes on what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the accord under which they must halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30km from the border with Israel.
Foreign minister says Syria looking forward to return to Arab League
CAIRO: Syria’s foreign minister said on Saturday he was looking forward to the return of Syria to the Arab League as the country’s new rulers seek a place in the regional political landscape.
Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani made his statements during a joint press conference in Damascus with Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki, who said the Arab League was working with member states to activate Syria’s participation.
Missile fired from Yemen intercepted over central Israel, military says
Explosions were heard over Jerusalem after sirens blared across the city and central Israel on Saturday morning, AFP journalists reported, while the Israeli military said a projectile had been launched from Yemen.
The explosions and sirens came after Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said that the ceasefire in the war in Gaza would take effect from 0630 GMT on Sunday.
Sirens and explosions were heard over Jerusalem at around 10:20 am (08:20 GMT) on Saturday, shortly after sirens sounded across central Israel in response to the projectile launched from Yemen, the military said in a statement.
Minutes later, the military said it had intercepted the projectile launched from Yemen.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched missile and drone attacks on Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.
On Friday, the Houthis warned that they would keep up their attacks if Israel did not respect the terms of its ceasefire with Hamas.
Two UAE aid convoys reach Gaza as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3
- The UAE has sent 155 aid convoys under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3
DUBAI: The more UAE aid convoys crossed into the Gaza Strip this week through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing to bring various humanitarian supplies for Palestinians affected by the devastating Israeli offensive.
The convoys, part of the Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 initiative, comprise 25 trucks laden with over 309.5 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food supplies, shelter tents and other essential items, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday.
The UAE has sent 155 aid convoys under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, with approximately 29,584 tonnes of humanitarian supplies delivered so far for the Palestinian people.
A ceasefire early Sunday morning is expected to provide relief to the besieged enclave’s population, and despite an Israeli ban on the UN’s aid agency for Palestinians from operating in the conflict-ridden area.
Gaza ceasefire to start early Sunday morning
- Qatar foreign ministry makes announcement on social media
- Israel to free 737 prisoners during the first phase of the truce deal
JERUSALEM/DOHA: A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will take effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday morning, Qatar, which helped mediate the deal, said on Saturday.
“As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30 am on Sunday, January 19, local time in Gaza,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said on X.
“We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.”
The exact time of the ceasefire’s start had been unclear, though Israel, whose cabinet earlier on Saturday approved the hostage and prisoner exchange deal, had said no prisoners would be freed before 1400 GMT.
During the first phase of the truce deal, Israel’s justice ministry said 737 prisoners and detainees will be freed.
It said in a statement on its website that “the government approves” the “release (of) 737 prisoners and detainees” currently in the custody of the prison service.
Palestinian militant group Hamas also said on Saturday that the mechanism of the release of Israeli hostages it holds in Gaza would depend on the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel would free.
In a statement, Hamas said the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released would be published one day before the exchange under terms of its ceasefire deal reached with Israel on Wednesday.
Israel’s cabinet voted to approve the ceasefire deal early Saturday, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, ending days of uncertainty about whether the truce would go into effect this weekend.
Those named by the ministry include men, women and children who it said will not be released before Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).
It had previously published a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners, the majority women, to be freed in exchange for Israeli captives in Gaza.
Among those on the expanded list was Zakaria Zubeidi, a chief of the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party.
Zubeidi escaped from Israel’s Gilboa prison with five other Palestinians in 2021, sparking a days-long manhunt, and is lauded by Palestinians as a hero.
Also to be freed is Khalida Jarar, a leftist Palestinian lawmaker whom Israel arrested and imprisoned on several occasions.
Jarar is a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group designated a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Detained in late December in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the 60-year-old has been held since then without charge.
Two sources close to Hamas said that the first group of hostages to be released consists of three Israeli women soldiers.
However, since the Palestinian Islamist movement considers any Israeli of military age who has completed mandatory service a soldier, the reference could also apply to civilians abducted during the attack that triggered the war.
The first three names on a list obtained by AFP of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase are women under 30 who were not in military service on the day of the Hamas attack.
Justice ministry spokeswoman Noga Katz has said the final number of prisoners to be released in the first swap would depend on the number of live hostages released by Hamas.
