Israel vows to eliminate new Hamas leader

Israel vowed Wednesday to eliminate the new Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, as The war in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian movement, now in its eleventh month, threatens to spread across the Middle East.

Yahya Sinouar was appointed Tuesday evening as head of the Islamist movement to replace Ismail Haniyeh, whose assassination on July 31 in Tehran was attributed to Israel by Iran, which promised reprisals.

Israel accuses this radical activist, until now leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, of being one of the masterminds of the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, which triggered the war.

Hunted by Israel, Yahya Sinwar, whose movement is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, has not appeared in public since October 7.

“We will increase our efforts to find him, to attack him,” declared the head of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi, on Wednesday.

The new leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar, on December 14, 2022, in Gaza, in the Palestinian Territories © AFP – MOHAMMED ABED

While all attempts at mediation have failed, the war, which according to Hamas has left nearly 40,000 dead in the small besieged Palestinian territory, has rekindled tensions in the Middle East, between Iran and its allies, including Lebanese Hezbollah, on the one hand, and Israel on the other.

These tensions have redoubled after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh and that of Fouad Chokr, the military leader of Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, who died on July 30 in an Israeli strike near Beirut.

– Diplomatic contacts –

Hezbollah and Iran are “obliged to retaliate” to these two assassinations, the head of the Lebanese armed movement, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Tuesday. Hezbollah will retaliate “whatever the consequences,” he warned.

The Israeli army also announced on Thursday that it had killed a Hamas official, Nael Sakhl, in the Gaza Strip on July 24, whom it accuses of having “directed terrorist attacks” in the West Bank.

Palestinians walk on a street in Deir el-balah in the Gaza Strip, on August 7, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

Faced with the risks of an extension of the war, the international community is trying to find ways to appease and relaunch negotiations with a view to a ceasefire associated with the release of the hostages held in Gaza.

Diplomatic contacts are increasing, particularly between the mediating countries, the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

“We believe that we have never been so close” to an agreement, said the spokesman for the National Security Council of the American presidency, John Kirby, on Wednesday.

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, whose country is Israel's main ally, asked Iran and Israel the day before to avoid a military “escalation”.

French President Emmanuel Macron also urged Tehran to “get out of the logic of retaliation”, believing that a new escalation “would be of no interest to anyone”. He also “called on the Israeli Prime Minister to follow the same logic” and “avoid a cycle of reprisals.”

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian asked Western countries to stop supporting Israel to “avoid” a regional war.

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Destructions in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, August 7, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

After ten months of war, the Israeli army continues its land and air offensive against Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, particularly in areas over which it had claimed to have taken control but where the fighting have resumed.

The army announced on Wednesday that it was continuing its operations in the center of the territory and having “eliminated numerous terrorists”.

The attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos in southern Israel resulted in the death of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people kidnapped, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.

– “Determined to defend ourselves” –

In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far left 39,677 dead, including at least 24 in 24 hours, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters. dead.

In front of Nasser hospital in Khan Younès, in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 7, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

The offensive has plunged the Palestinian territory into a catastrophic humanitarian situation, with the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants having been displaced.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that it would send more than a million polio vaccines there, as a strain of the virus was detected in sewage samples.

The European Union, France and the United Kingdom strongly condemned on Wednesday the comments of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (far right), who declared that “letting the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip die of starvation” be justified and moral to free the hostages”.

While waiting for the response promised by Iran and its allies, Israel has been on alert for almost a week.

“We (…) are determined to defend ourselves,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during a visit to the military base in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv.

Egypt announced on Wednesday that it had asked Egyptian carriers not to enter Iranian airspace on Thursday morning due to “military exercises” planned in Iran.

Fears of a conflagration are also very high in Lebanon, where Israeli military planes once again broke the sound barrier over Beirut on Wednesday.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah, very powerful in Lebanon, has exchanged fire almost daily with the Israeli army along the border.

A Lebanese security source reported two deaths, including a civilian and a Hezbollah member, in an Israeli strike in the Jouaiyya region in southern Lebanon. In a statement, the Israeli army said it had eliminated a “terrorist” in this area.

Israeli strike on the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, August 7, 2024 © AFP – Rabih DAHER

Hezbollah said it had launched rockets in response to northern Israel. The Israeli army announced for its part that it had “destroyed” an installation from which Hezbollah had launched a drone towards the Golan Heights annexed by Israel.

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