By Damilola Banjo / PassBlue
United Nations officials say it is too early to know how the death of Yahya Sinwar, 61, the leader of Hamas, in southern Gaza will affect the yearlong war in the Palestinian enclave. Senior officials at the UN said it would continue to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by Hamas, independent of recent events.
Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres, told journalists at midday on Oct. 17 that the UN would welcome any development that can bring about a lasting ceasefire, that civilians would be protected, that hostages would be returned and that humanitarian access to the enclave would improve, especially in the north, which is on the verge of another famine.
“And any development that can help push us along that way would be welcome,” Haq added. He told PassBlue that a statement from Guterres would not be made on Sinwar’s death. A diplomat from the Security Council also said a statement from the body was unlikely to materialize.
The Israeli military said Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre and hostage-taking by Hamas, was killed in an exchange of fire between the Israel Defense Forces and militants in Rafah on Oct. 16. Reports said the incident that led to the death of the Palestinian militant was not a result of any special military operation but a regular firefight in the enclave aboveground. Israeli authorities said Sinwar’s body was identified by his dental and fingerprint records.
“Yahya Sinwar was eliminated after hiding for the past year behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement. “The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA [Israel Security Agency] over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination.”
United States President Joe Biden said in a statement: “This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
Reports also say Sinwar has been a major obstacle to the ceasefire agreement proposed by the US. The American envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has said repeatedly that Hamas was holding back from accepting the conditions of the ceasefire negotiated by the US, with Egypt and Qatar as mediators. Critics have also equally said that Israel has been making additional demands as conditions for the ceasefire.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the death of Sinwar while urging Gazans to give up the remaining Hamas fighters allegedly hiding among the civilians. In a video clip, he said, “We eliminated Sinwar.”
Just as news broke about the possible death of Sinwar, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, spoke to the media at the UN and gave updates on the “alarming” humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He described the findings of the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) on food security as “beyond terrifying.” According to the latest data, the number of people at catastrophic levels of hunger in the enclave is expected to double as the risk of famine persists.
Turk, who is based in Geneva, was speaking to media at a briefing also at midday on Oct. 17, discussing his remarks to the General Assembly on the state of human rights globally. He reiterated that starvation as a tool of warfare is a crime under international humanitarian law. He urged Israel to allow sufficient lifesaving aid into Gaza, especially as reports are surfacing of Israel preventing such goods from reaching the north this month.
“This crisis is principally the consequence of decisions made by the Israeli authorities,” he said. “It is in their power to change the situation — urgently.”
The high commissioner also said that “months of exchanges of missiles between Hezbollah and Israeli forces along the Israel-Lebanon border have escalated into spiralling violence of much greater scale, and even greater danger, with Israeli troops now present in Lebanon.”
Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Lebanon, he added, have resulted in significant civilian casualties and displacement just as Hezbollah’s continued rocket fire into Israel further escalates the violence.
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel not only prompted Israeli military retaliation over the last year in Gaza but it also led to increased rocket fire from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in support of Hamas. Recently, the Israeli army has intensified its operations aimed at eliminating Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Fighting escalated in the country in September when Israel triggered the explosion of pager devices, killing at least 37 people and injuring more than 2,931 others. The IDF said the attack also assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed terror group, in September.
UN peacekeepers have not been spared from the fighting in southern Lebanon as well. Five peacekeepers — three Indonesians and two Sri Lankans — from the mission, called Unifil, have been injured in multiple attacks by Israeli forces. Turk warned that attacks against UN peacekeepers breach international law and may constitute war crimes.
“The risk of a full-fledged regional [war] remains very high — one that could engulf the lives and the human rights of millions of people,” he said of the Mideast region. “A ceasefire, an end to the occupation and a return to the negotiating table — only these can advance the rights of Palestinians, Israelis, people in Lebanon, across the region and beyond to live in peace and security.”
Please share this story and help us grow our network!
Damilola Banjo
Damilola Banjo is a staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was named the 2020 Nigeria Investigative Journalist of the Year by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in communications and language arts from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Editor’s Note: At a moment when the once vaunted model of responsible journalism is overwhelmingly the play thing of self-serving billionaires and their corporate scribes, alternatives of integrity are desperately needed, and ScheerPost is one of them. Please support our independent journalism by contributing to our online donation platform, Network for Good, or send a check to our new PO Box. We can’t thank you enough, and promise to keep bringing you this kind of vital news.
You can also make a donation to our PayPal or subscribe to our Patreon.