Israel vows to ‘eliminate’ new Hamas chief

TEL AVIV: Israel has vowed to eliminate new Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack, with regional hostilities threatening to boil over as the Gaza war enters its 11th month.

The naming of Sinwar to lead the Palestinian fighter group came as Israel steeled itself for potential Iranian retaliation over the killing of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh last week in Tehran.

Speaking at a military base, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “determined” to defend itself.

“We are prepared both defensively and offensively,” he told new recruits.

Army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi vowed to “find him (Sinwar), attack him” and force Hamas to find someone to replace him.

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Sinwar — Hamas’s leader in Gaza since 2017 — has not been seen since the October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history.

A senior Hamas official told AFP Sinwar’s selection sent a message that the organisation “continues its path of resistance”.

Analysts believe Yahya Sinwar has been both more reluctant to agree to a Gaza ceasefire and closer to Tehran than Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar.

“If a ceasefire deal seemed unlikely upon Haniyeh’s death, it is even less likely under Yahya Sinwar,” said Rita Katz, executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said it is up to Sinwar to help achieve a ceasefire, saying he “has been and remains the primary decider”.

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Hamas’s Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah has also pledged to avenge the deaths of Haniyeh and its own military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

In a televised address to mark one week since Shukr’s death, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday his group would retaliate “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed groups in the region.

The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.

President Joe Biden this week spoke with regional leaders, while Blinken told reporters the message of restraint had also been communicated “directly” to both Israel and Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron told Netanyahu on Wednesday to “avoid a cycle of reprisals”, after earlier delivering the same message to his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, the French presidency said.

Pezeshkian told Macron in a separate telephone call that the West “should immediately stop selling arms and supporting” Israel if it wanted to prevent war, his office said.

Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s killing in Iran, but it has confirmed it carried out the strike on Shukr in Beirut.