The world’s remaining glimpse of Hamas’ chief was tough and uncooked, displaying him wounded and cornered as he sat in a bombed-out Palestinian residence and confronted down the Israeli drone filming him, hurling a stick at it.
For Israel, the scene was one in all victory, displaying Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Oct. 7, damaged and defeated.
However many within the Arab and Muslim world — whether or not supporters of Hamas or not — noticed one thing completely different within the grainy footage: a defiant martyr who died fighting to the end.
Clips from the launched drone footage went viral on social media, accompanied by quotes from Sinwar’s speeches during which he declared that he would quite die on the battlefield. An oil portray of a masked Sinwar sitting proudly on an armchair was extensively shared, apparently impressed by the final picture of him alive.
“By broadcasting the final minutes of the lifetime of Yahya Sinwar, the occupation made his life longer than the lives of his killers,” Osama Gaweesh, an Egyptian media character and journalist, wrote on social media.
In Gaza, reactions to Sinwar’s demise had been blended. Some mourned his killing, whereas others expressed reduction and hope that it may deliver an finish to the devastating battle triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel that he’s mentioned to have directed. Throughout the Arab and Muslim world, and away from the devastation in Gaza, opinions various.
One factor, although, was clear. The footage was hailed by supporters and even some critics as proof of a person killed in confrontation who at the least wasn’t hidden in a tunnel surrounded by hostages as Israel has mentioned he was for a lot of the final yr.
Three days after he was killed, Israel’s army dropped leaflets in south Gaza, displaying one other picture of Sinwar mendacity lifeless on a chair, along with his finger lower and blood working down his brow. “Sinwar destroyed your lives. He hid in a darkish gap and was liquidated whereas escaping fearfully,” the leaflet mentioned.
“I don’t assume there’s a Palestinian chief of the primary rank who died in a confrontation (like Sinwar), in line with what the leaked Israeli model exhibits,” mentioned Sadeq Abu Amer, head of the Palestinian Dialogue Group, an Istanbul-based assume tank.
Sinwar’s demise was completely different
In contrast to Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in his hotel room in Iran, or the chief of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah, bombed in an underground bunker by dozens of large munitions, Sinwar was killed whereas apparently preventing Israeli forces, greater than a yr after the battle started.
Iran, the Shiite powerhouse and a fundamental backer of Hamas, went additional. It contrasted Sinwar’s demise with that of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Tehran’s archenemy.
In an announcement by Iran’s U.N. Mission, it mentioned Saddam appeared raveled out of an underground gap, dragged by U.S. forces whereas “he begged them to not kill him regardless of being armed.” Sinwar, however, was killed within the open whereas “dealing with the enemy,” Iran mentioned.
In a strongly worded assertion, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the very best seat of Sunni Muslim studying on the earth, blasted Israel’s portrayal of Sinwar as a terrorist. With out naming Sinwar, the assertion mentioned that the “martyrs of the resistance” died defending their land and their trigger.
In Israel, the military’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, described Sinwar as “defeated, outcast, and persecuted.” Many celebrated the information of the killing of the architect of the Oct. 7 assault.
Video posted on-line confirmed a lifeguard on a Tel Aviv seaside saying the information to applause, whereas Israeli media confirmed troopers handing out sweets. Residents of Sderot, a city that was attacked by Hamas militants, had been filmed dancing on the streets, some wrapped in Israeli flags. On Telegram, some shared photos of a lifeless Sinwar, likening him to a rat.
However there have been additionally protests from households of hostages and their supporters who need Israeli leaders to make use of the second to deliver the hostages residence.
Some are energized, not demoralized
Susan Abulhawa, probably the most extensively learn Palestinian authors, mentioned the pictures launched by Israel had been a supply of delight. Israel “thought that publishing footage of Sinwar’s final moments would demoralize us, make us really feel defeat,” she wrote on X. “In actuality, the footage immortalizes Sinwar and galvanizes all of us to have braveness and resolve till the final second.”
Within the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, some remembered him with respect, whereas others expressed anger.
“He died as a fighter, as a martyr,” mentioned Somaia Mohtasib, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza Metropolis.
For Saleh Shonnar, a resident of north Gaza now displaced to the middle, tens of 1000’s of Palestinians had been killed. “Lots of, tens of senior leaders had been martyred and changed with new leaders.”
In Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace, mourners in a bombed-out mosque recited the funeral prayer for a Muslim when the physique is lacking. Israel has saved Sinwar’s physique. Dozens of males and youngsters took half within the prayers.
And in Wadi al-Zayne, a city in Lebanon’s Chouf area with a major Palestinian inhabitants, Bilal Farhat mentioned that Sinwar’s demise made him a logo of heroic resistance.
“He died preventing on the entrance line. It provides him some form of mystical hero aura,” Farhat mentioned.
Some Palestinians took to X to criticize Sinwar and dismiss his demise compared to their very own struggling. One speaker on a recorded dialogue mentioned there is no such thing as a approach of telling how he died. One other blamed him for 18 years of struggling, calling him a “loopy man” who began a battle he couldn’t win. “If he’s pricey, we had many extra pricey ones killed,” one yelled.
In the long term, the assume tank’s Abu Amer mentioned that the impact of the assist and empathy for Sinwar after his demise is unlikely to alter the Arab public’s view of Oct. 7 and what adopted.
“Those that supported Oct. 7 will proceed to, and those that opposed Oct. 7 — and they’re many — will preserve their opinions, even when they present sympathy or admiration for him. Most Palestinians at the moment are targeted on ending the battle,” he mentioned.
___
Fatma Khaled reported from Cairo. Julia Frankel and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Edith M. Lederer on the United Nations, Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report .
