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October 19, 2024 | 12:45 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on October 16 marked a major triumph for Israel. But Israeli leaders are also seeking to lock in strategic gains that go beyond military victories—to reshape the regional landscape in Israel's favor and shield its borders from any future attacks, sources familiar with their thinking say.
With U.S. elections approaching, Israel is rushing to inflict maximum damage on Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and seizing the moment to carve out de facto buffer zones in a bid to create an irreversible reality before a new president takes office in January, eight sources told Reuters.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to use Sinwar’s killing to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wind down the war in Gaza. But the Israeli leader may prefer to wait out the end of Biden’s term and take his chances with the next president, whether the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, or Republican rival Donald Trump, with whom Netanyahu has had close ties.
Before considering any ceasefire agreements, Israel is accelerating its military campaign to push Hezbollah away from its northern border while thrusting into Gaza’s densely packed Jabalia refugee camp in what Palestinians and U.N. agencies fear could be an attempt to seal off northern Gaza from the rest of the enclave.
It is also planning a response to a ballistic missile barrage carried out by Iran on October 1, its second direct attack on Israel in six months.
"There is a new landscape, a new geopolitical change in the region," said David Schenker, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs who is now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute think tank.
Before Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, Israel was "willing to tolerate a high-level threat," responding to rocket fire from the Palestinian militant group and other foes with limited strikes, Schenker said. "No longer."
"This time Israel is fighting on many fronts. It's Hamas; it's Hezbollah, and Iran is coming soon," he said.
Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health authorities in the enclave, in a subsequent offensive after Palestinian resistance group Hamas attacked southern Israel last year.
Netanyahu said in a statement on Thursday that Sinwar’s death "settled the score," but he warned that the Gaza war would continue with full force until Israel's hostages were returned.
His office said it had nothing further to add.
REUTERS
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