Netanyahu Faces Pressure to End Fighting in Gaza After Killing of Sinwar

October 18, 2024 | 11:26 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jerusalem - The killing of Israel's most wanted enemy Yahya Sinwar has been hailed as vindication for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but in a country weary after a year of war it also raises pressure on him to end the fighting and save the hostages still in Gaza.

Netanyahu himself described Sinwar's death as "the beginning of the end" to a conflict that has spread to Lebanon and Yemen, and said it could end if Hamas lays down its arms and return the 101 Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza.

With Sinwar joining a growing list of Palestinian and Lebanese militant leaders killed by Israel over recent months, the fear that a deal would reward the architect of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel has gone.

"I think what we have now is an opportunity to use this moment in Gaza to close the front in Gaza," said Shira Efron, Senior Director of Policy Research at the pro-Israel Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation.

"I mean, you need to remember that this goes into the kishka (the guts) of Israeli society, they've avenged the mastermind Sinwar," she said.

Yet it remains unclear how Hamas will respond to the death of their leader, filmed by an Israeli drone sitting badly wounded in a ruined building in Gaza before his body was recovered and taken to Israel for tests that confirmed his identity.

On Friday, the deputy head of Hamas Khalil Al-Hayya said Israeli hostages would not be returned until Israeli "aggression" ended and its forces withdrew.

Some of Netanyahu's hardline political allies, including his Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel should not stop before the "complete surrender" of Hamas.

But with the White House talking about a potential "inflection point" in the war, even many supporters of Israel's hitherto uncompromising approach said there was an opportunity to end the fighting.

"I think Netanyahu said the right thing last night. Give us the hostages and - when everyone, the hostages, will return - we'll leave," said Erez Goldman, a Jerusalem resident, as he absorbed the news the following day.

A significant section of Israeli opinion, including Netanyahu, has always maintained that the only way to achieve peace is by inflicting military defeats on their enemies, even if that comes at the cost of upsetting their allies.

Sinwar's death was seen by many as vindication of Israel's refusal to bow to international pressure earlier this year not to send ground troops into the city of Rafah, which was at the time the refuge for more than a million Palestinians displaced by the fighting.

"This is the first thing that came to mind when Sinwar was taken out in Rafah," one senior official said on Friday.

Netanyahu has resisted pressure for months from families of the hostages and from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, to agree a ceasefire deal in Gaza. There were more such calls on Friday.

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