All news
Netanyahu names condition under which Hamas militants will be able to 'leave and live'
After the liquidation of the Hamas leader, the Prime Minister addressed the Hamas fighters and the residents of Gaza. He was the first to offer to lay down their arms and release the hostages. According to him, the latter now has a chance to "break free" from Hamas.
Hamas fighters who surrender and free Israeli hostages "will be able to leave and live," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he announced the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Shinwar.
“If someone lays down their arms and returns our hostage, we will let him go and leave him alive,” he said (quoted by Channel 12).
The prime minister called Sinwar's death "an important milestone in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas." "I want to say this again as clearly as possible. Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the beginning of a post-Hamas era and an opportunity for the people of Gaza to finally get rid of tyranny," Netanyahu said. He stressed that other Hamas leaders would also be killed.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sinwar was the one who “planned and carried out” the October 7, 2023, attack that killed hundreds of Israelis and took them hostage. “The IDF will contact anyone who tries to harm Israeli citizens or our security forces, and we will hold you accountable,” Gallant threatened.
Sinwar was killed along with two other Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on October 16. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevy visited the scene of the group's leader's death and said the military had no prior information that Sinwar was in the area where he died. The IDF did not immediately confirm whether he was killed today.
The 61-year-old Hamas leader was the group's founder. He spent more than 20 years in Israeli prisons and was released in a swap in 2011, giving Israel the DNA it needs to identify him.
Sinwar has been the head of Hamas's politburo since August. Former President Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a bomb blast at his home in Tehran in late July as he attended the inauguration of new President Masoud Fezeshkian. Israel was accused of orchestrating the assassination.
In recent months, many leaders and commanders of Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been killed. In late September, an airstrike on the group's headquarters in a Beirut suburb killed the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.