World reacts to Israel claims Hamas leader Sinwar killed

Israel has claimed its forces have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an attack in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military confirmed Sinwar’s death on Thursday, but Hamas has not yet commented on the claim.

According to the Israeli military statement, Sinwar was killed on Wednesday after soldiers “eliminated three fighters.”

In August, Hamas appointed its Gaza leader, Sinwar, as the group’s political bureau head to succeed Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was assassinated during a visit to Iran on July 31.

Here are some reactions to Sinwar’s death, starting with those closest to the situation:

Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has “settled its account” with Sinwar but “war is not yet ended.”

Netanyahu said in televised remarks that “light is prevailing over darkness” in the region and that Sinwar’s death is an “important landmark” in the decline of the group.

Hamas will no longer rule Gaza, he said.

Meanwhile, foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army,” while Benny Gantz, chairman of Israel’s National Unity Party, congratulated the Israeli military.

“This is an important achievement with a clear message – we will pursue our enemies to the end, anytime and anywhere,” Gantz wrote on the social platform X.

He said the Israeli military “will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip for years to come, and now the series of achievements and the elimination of Sinwar must be taken advantage of to bring about the return of the abductees and the replacement of Hamas’s rule.”

Families of Israeli captives

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum welcomed the Israeli army’s statement, saying Sinwar’s death should help “secure” the release of captives still in Gaza.

The Forum “welcomes Yahya Sinwar’s elimination and urges leveraging this major achievement to secure hostages’ return,” it said in a statement.

United States

US President Joe Biden said Sinwar’s death marks a moment of relief for Israelis while providing the opportunity for a “day after” in Gaza without the group in power.

“Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists. But much work remains before us,” Biden said in a statement.

“I will be speaking soon with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them, to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all, which has caused so much devastation to innocent people,” Biden said.

Vice President Kamala Harris hailed Sinwar’s death and said it’s a chance to “finally end the war in Gaza.”

“Justice has been served,” Harris told reporters. “Sinwar was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people, including the victims of October 7 and hostages killed in Gaza.”

“Today I can only hope that the families of the victims of Hamas feel a sense and measure of relief,” she added.

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives in the US, Israel’s top military and diplomatic ally, also applauded Israel’s claim that Sinwar has been killed, saying his death had brought “relief” to the people of Israel.

“Sinwar’s life was the embodiment of evil and marked by hatred for all that is good in the world,” Mike Johnson said in a statement. “His death brings hope for all those who seek to live in freedom, and relief to Israelis he has sought to oppress.”

US Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sinwar’s “beliefs and actions have caused so much pain to the Israeli and Palestinian people.”

“I pray that his elimination from the scene will clear a path to urgently and immediately bring home all the hostages – including the seven Americans – and negotiate an end to hostilities that will ensure the security of the Israeli people and provide full humanitarian relief and a new path forward for the people of Gaza.”

Germany

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in a statement, branded Sinwar “a cruel murderer and a terrorist.”

She said Hamas should “immediately release all the hostages” it seized during its October 7 attack on Israel “and lay down its arms.”

France

President Emmanuel Macron called for the release of “all hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza after Israel said it had killed Sinwar.

“Yahya Sinwar was the main person responsible for the terrorist attacks and barbaric acts of October 7,” Macron posted on X. “France demands the release of all hostages still held by Hamas.”

NATO

NATO chief Mark Rutte told reporters at a Brussels news conference that “if he has died, I personally will not miss him,” referring to Sinwar.

Italy

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said: “It seems that the military leader of Hamas has been killed and I believe that from this point of view Israel may have carried out its self-defence against the Hamas terrorists.”

He added: “I hope that the disappearance of the Hamas leader will lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.”

United Kingdom

John Healey, the United Kingdom’s defence secretary, said: “I, for one, will not mourn the death of a terror leader like Sinwar, someone who was responsible for the terror attack on October the 7th.”

He said Israel’s attack on southern Israel last year “triggered not just the darkest, deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Second World War, but it’s triggered since more than a year of conflict and an intolerable level of civilian Palestinian casualties as well.”