Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 18.10.2024
The past year of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza has created an unprecedented global awakening to the plight of the Palestinian people. At no point in the 76 years since the formation of the state of Israel and the unleashing of the Nakba has there been such open anger at Israel and such widespread solidarity with the Palestinians. The massive demonstrations in cities across the globe, the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel, the recalling of ambassadors, ruling world courts against Israel, and mounting demands for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state from the river to the sea —none of this would have taken place without Hamas’s armed insurrection under the command of Sinwar on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent war of annihilation in Gaza.
Yahya Sinwar (born October 29, 1962, Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza Strip—died October 16, 2024, Rafah, Gaza Strip) was the de facto leader of Hamas from 2017 to 2024 and the de jure leader as head of its political bureau from August 2024 to October 2024. Sinwar was an early architect of Hamas’s armed wing.
“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]
The so-called leader of the opposition, Lapid, said: “Yahya Sinwar was one of the world’s worst terrorists. He dedicated his life to an evil ideology of hatred and death. He was the embodiment of evil.” [ii]
General Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM Commander said on the X “Congratulations to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the elimination of Yahya Sinwar, the mass-murdering leader of the terrorist group, Hamas…Those who choose the path of terrorism should expect the same fate as Sinwar.” [iii]
In Jordan Roya, there is a list of Hamas leaders who the Zionist terror assassinated: “The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalated its efforts against Hamas by announcing the recent assassination of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas’ political bureau. This targeted killing is part of a long history of assassinations aimed at dismantling Hamas’ leadership.
The pattern of targeted killings began in 1996 with the assassination of Yahya Ayyash, a leading figure in the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. Ayyash was killed in an operation attributed to “Israeli” Shin Bet, setting the stage for a series of high-profile assassinations.
– High-profile assassinations –
Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim (July 31, 2001)
These two Hamas members were killed in an IOF airstrike targeting a media office in Nablus.
Salah Shehade (July 22, 2002)
The founder of Hamas’ military wing was assassinated in an airstrike that resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians.
Ismail Abu Shanab (August 22, 2003)
Killed in a missile strike targeting his vehicle.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (March 22, 2004)
The founder of Hamas was assassinated shortly after leaving dawn prayers.
Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi (April 17, 2004)
Al-Rantisi was killed a month after Yassin’s assassination.
Nizar Rayan (January 2009)
Assassinated during an IOF operation.
Said Seyam (January 2009)
Killed shortly after Nizar Rayyan, continuing the trend of targeted eliminations.
Ahmed Jabari (November 2012)
The deputy commander of the al-Qassam Brigades was assassinated in an airstrike.
Three military commanders (August 2014)
These leaders were killed in an airstrike on the city of Rafah.
Saleh Al-Arouri (January 2024)
The deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau was assassinated in an airstrike near Beirut.
Ismail Haniyeh (July 31, 2024)
Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, with Hamas and Iran accusing the Israeli Occupation of orchestrating the attack.” [iv]
While the Western imperialists celebrated the attack, Sinwar was a hero.
Hamas Operation Al Aqsa Flood has been a successful operation despite the killing of many Palestinian civilians and the loss of Hamas leaders and fighters. For more than a year, the small organization has been fighting the Zionist army, considered a mighty army, using very sophisticated war instruments provided by American imperialism. Yet, the Zionists cannot break Hamas.
Hamas framed the operation as a righteous rebellion against an occupation force that has waged a military, political, and economic war of collective punishment against the people of Gaza. The assassination of former Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the chief political leader of Hama, did not break Hamas, nor did the killing of Sinwar.
The people in Gaza think similarly to the Jewish rebels of Warsaw Ghetto; “If we have to choose, why choose to be the good victims, the peaceful victims? If we have to die, we have to die in dignity. Standing, fighting, fighting back, and standing as dignified martyrs.”
A more recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, whose findings were released in mid-June, found that two-thirds of the Gaza population expressed support for the October 7 attack on Israel, with more than 80 percent thinking that it put Palestine at the center of global attention. More than half of Gaza residents polled indicated that they hoped Hamas would return to power after the war. Gaza lost confidence in peace with Israel. People believe that the only way is now to fight against Israel. This has not changed with the killing of Sinwar.
“Biden and Israeli officials often respond to questions about the staggering death toll in Gaza or the mass killing of women and children over the past year by blaming Hamas. They have treated the events of October 7 as if they granted Israel an open-ended license to kill on an industrial scale.” [v]
It’s like telling the Jews in the Warsaw uprising that you should have known that the German military was going to respond the way they did, and you are going to be responsible for the deaths of other residents in the Warsaw ghetto. In both Israeli and U.S. media, Sinwar is generally portrayed as a villain hiding in his tunnel lair, dreaming up ways to murder and terrorize innocent Israelis. He has been a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist since 2015.
Despite the sinister portrayals, Sinwar’s writings and media interviews show that he was a thinking person with clearly defined political objectives of free Palestine who believed in armed struggle as a means to an end.
“In 1988, just months after Hamas was founded, Sinwar was arrested by Israeli forces and sentenced to four life sentences on charges he had personally murdered alleged Palestinian collaborators. During his 22 years in an Israeli prison, he became fluent in Hebrew and studied the history of the Israeli state, its political culture, and its intelligence and military apparatus. He translated the memoirs of several former heads of the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet by hand.”
In his past media interviews, Sinwar has spoken of Hamas as a social movement with a military wing and framed its political goals as part of the historic struggle to reestablish a unified state of Palestine. “I am the Gaza leader of Hamas, of something much more complex than a militia—a national liberation movement. And my main duty is to act in the interest of my people: to defend it and its right to freedom and independence,” he said. “All of those who still view us as an armed group and nothing more, you don’t have any idea of what Hamas looks like… You focus on resistance, on the means rather than the goal—which is a state based on democracy, pluralism, and cooperation. A state that protects rights and freedom, where differences are faced through words, not through guns. Hamas is much more than its military operations.” [vi]
In 2017, Hamas changed its manifesto that now, among other things, says:
“Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project, not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious, or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, anti-Semitism, and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage. The Zionist movement, which was able, with the help of Western powers, to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation, which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine”. [vii]
“Throughout 2018 and 2019, Sinwar endorsed the large-scale nonviolent protests along the walls and fences of Gaza, known as the Great March of Return. “We believe that if we have a way to resolve the conflict without destruction potentially, we’re O.K. with that,” Sinwar said at a rare news conference in 2018. “We would prefer to earn our rights by soft and peaceful means. But we understand that if we are not given those rights, we are entitled to earn them by resistance.”
Israel responded to the protests with the use of force, killing 223 people and wounding more than 8,000 others.
In May 2021, following a series of Israeli attacks on Palestinian worshippers at Al Aqsa mosque—as well as threats of forced evictions of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem—Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli cities, killing 12 civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with U.S. support, ordered heavy attacks against Gaza. More than 250 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured.
After the end of Israel’s 11-day bombing campaign against Gaza, Sinwar said: “The same type of racism that killed George Floyd is being used by [Israel] against the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and in the West Bank. And by the burning of our children. And against the Gaza Strip through siege, murder, and starvation.”
“The battle between us and the occupation who desecrated our land, displaced our people, and are still murdering and displacing Palestinians—confiscating lands and attacking sacred places—is an open-ended battle,” Sinwar said. When asked about the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas rockets, Sinwar said:. “You can’t compare that to those who resist and defend themselves with weapons that look primitive in comparison. If we had the capabilities to launch precision missiles that targeted military targets, we wouldn’t have used the rockets that we did,” he shot back. “Does the world expect us to be well-behaved victims while we’re getting killed? For us to be slaughtered without making a noise? That’s impossible.”
Two and a half years later, Sinwar authorized the start of Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the single deadliest attack inside Israel in history.
“Throughout the two years leading up to the October 7 attacks, Hamas officials sent Israel repeated warnings to halt the activity of illegal settlements and annexations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Hamas also protested Israel’s mounting attacks and provocations on the grounds of Al Aqsa mosque, the holiest Islamic site in Palestine, and demanded that the U.S. and other nations restrain Israel. “We talked to the mediators, especially the United Nations and the Egyptians and the Qataris: ‘Tell Israel to stop this. We will not be able to tolerate more and more,’” said Hamad, a Hebrew speaker with a long history of negotiating with Israeli officials. “They did not listen to us. They thought that Hamas is weak ,”
Before October 7, the prospects for Palestinian self-determination in any form of state were becoming slimmer and slimmer. The conditions in Gaza were dire, and there were no signs of improvement because of the intense Israeli blockade. Residents of the Strip, according to polls, were increasingly apportioning blame for their misery on Hamas—one of the central aims of Israel’s collective punishment strategy. The U.S. was spearheading a series of diplomatic initiatives to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states. The Abraham Accords, launched under President Donald Trump, effectively excised the issue of Palestinian self-determination as a condition for normalization, a major victory for Israel. Israeli provocations and attacks against worshippers at Al Aqsa were becoming a regular occurrence. Israel was aggressively moving forward with its annexation of Palestinian land and armed settlers were conducting deadly paramilitary actions, often with the support or facilitation of the government, against Palestinian farms and homes in the occupied territories.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was widely despised for its corruption and collaboration with Israel, including through the brutal actions of its U.S.-backed security forces. The PA, often referred to as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation, routinely arrests dissidents, union organizers, and journalists, in addition to people Israel has identified as security risks.
Hamas wanted to shatter the status quo on Gaza, position itself as the defender of the Palestinian people, and open possibilities for a new alignment of political power to replace what they saw as PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Vichy rule. At its highest level, Operation Al Aqsa Flood was to be the opening salvo in what Hamas hoped would be a decisive and historic moment in the war for the liberation of Palestine.
“On a tactical level, the October 7 operations exceeded Hamas’s projections. “It was very surprising for us how speedy one of the strongest brigades in the Israeli Army—the Gaza brigade is one of the strongest, most sophisticated groups of their army—to collapse within hours without any serious resistance, and that even the state as a whole, for hours and maybe days, continued to be paralyzed, were not able to respond in the proper professional way,” said Naim, the Hamas political bureau member .”
“They were able to create this image of undefeated, undefeatable army, undefeatable soldiers, the long hand of Israel, which can hit everywhere or strike everywhere and come back, relax, to drink at some cafe in Tel Aviv, like what they have done in Iraq, in Syria, Lebanon, everywhere. I think it has shown that [Israel’s self-promoted reputation] was not reflecting reality.” The attacks, he said, showed Palestinians and their allies that “Israel is defeatable and liberation of Palestine is a good possibility.” [viii]
One year after the attacks, Israel remains in a state of shock and disbelief over the total failure of its military and intelligence agencies to protect Israel.
The Israelis are celebrating the killing of Sinwar instead of understanding that the repression of the Palestinians stealing the lands, tortures, and rapes will continue the war until Israel is destroyed and replaced by Free Red Palestine from the river to the sea. A state that the Palestinian refugees will return to, and the Jewish minority will have civil rights—part of the socialist federation of the Middle East.
Sinwar will be replaced, and the war against the Zionist monster. We, as a section of the RCIT, are proud to stand with the Palestinians in the war against the Zionist apartheid and recognize that the murder of Sinwar is a loss for the struggle against imperialism and Zionist racism.
Down with the Zionist monster!
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/17/world-reacts-to-israel-claims-hamas-leader-sinwar-killed
[ii] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-825024
[iii] https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/3939040/statement-from-gen-michael-erik-kurilla-commander-us-central-command-on-the-dea/
[iv] https://en.royanews.tv/news/55022
[v] https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/on-the-record-with-hamas
[vi] Ibid
[vii] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full
[viii] https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/on-the-record-with-hamas