In Israeli footage of the last minutes of Hamas leader’s life, some see a symbol of defiance

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

In ******** footage of the last minutes of ****** leader’s life, some see a symbol of defiance

The world’s final glimpse of ******’ leader was rough and raw, showing him wounded and cornered as he sat in a bombed-out ************ home and faced down the ******** drone filming him, hurling a stick at it.

For *******, the scene was one of victory, showing Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Oct. 7, broken and defeated.

But many in the ***** and ******* world — whether supporters of ****** or not — saw something different in the grainy footage: a defiant martyr

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Clips from the released drone footage went viral on social media, accompanied by quotes from Sinwar’s speeches in which he declared that he would rather **** on the battlefield. An oil painting of a masked Sinwar sitting proudly on an armchair was widely shared, apparently inspired by the last image of him alive.

“By broadcasting the last minutes of the life of Yahya Sinwar, the occupation made his life longer than the lives of his killers,” ****** Gaweesh, an Egyptian media personality and journalist, wrote on social media.

In Gaza, reactions to Sinwar’s ****** were mixed. Some mourned his ********, while others expressed relief and hope that it could bring an end to the devastating war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, ****** ******* on ******* that he is said to have directed. Across the ***** and ******* world, and away from the devastation in Gaza, opinions varied.

One thing, though, was clear. The footage was hailed by supporters and even some critics as evidence of a man ******* in confrontation who at least wasn’t hidden in a tunnel surrounded by hostages as ******* has said he was for much of the last year.

Three days after he was *******, *******’s military dropped leaflets in south Gaza, showing another image of Sinwar lying ***** on a chair, with his finger cut and blood running down his forehead. “Sinwar destroyed your lives. He hid in a dark ***** and was liquidated while escaping fearfully,” the leaflet said.

“I don’t think there is a ************ leader of the first rank who ***** in a confrontation (like Sinwar), according to what the leaked ******** version shows,” said Sadeq Abu Amer, head of the ************ Dialogue Group, an Istanbul-based think tank.

Sinwar’s demise was different

Unlike ****** political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in Iran, or the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

by dozens of massive munitions, Sinwar was ******* while apparently fighting ******** forces, more than a year after the war began.

Iran, the Shiite powerhouse and a main backer of ******, went further. It contrasted Sinwar’s ****** with that of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Tehran’s archenemy.

In a statement by Iran’s U.N. Mission, it said Saddam appeared disheveled out of an underground *****, dragged by U.S. forces while “he begged them not to ***** him despite being armed.” Sinwar, on the other hand, was ******* in the open while “facing the ******,” Iran said.

In a strongly worded statement, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni ******* learning in the world, blasted *******’s portrayal of Sinwar as a **********. Without naming Sinwar, the statement said that the “martyrs of the resistance” ***** defending their land and their cause.

In *******, the army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, described Sinwar as “defeated, outcast, and persecuted.” Many celebrated the news of the ******** of the architect of the Oct. 7 *******.

Video posted online showed a lifeguard on a Tel Aviv beach announcing the news to applause, while ******** media showed soldiers handing out sweets. Residents of Sderot, a town that was attacked by ****** militants, were filmed dancing on the streets, some wrapped in ******** flags. On Telegram, some shared pictures of a ***** Sinwar, likening him to a rat.

But there were also protests from families of hostages and their supporters who want ******** leaders to use the moment to bring the hostages home.

Some are energized, not demoralized

Susan Abulhawa, one of the most widely read ************ authors, said the images released by ******* were a source of pride. ******* “thought that publishing footage of Sinwar’s last moments would demoralize us, make us feel defeat,” she wrote on X. “In reality, the footage immortalizes Sinwar and galvanizes all of us to have courage and resolve until the last moment.”

In the ************ territories and Lebanon, some remembered him with respect, while others expressed anger.

“He ***** as a fighter, as a martyr,” said Somaia Mohtasib, a ************ displaced from Gaza City.

For Saleh Shonnar, a resident of north Gaza now displaced to the center, tens of thousands of Palestinians were *******. “Hundreds, tens of senior leaders were martyred and replaced with new leaders.”

In Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace, mourners in a bombed-out mosque recited the ******** prayer for a ******* when the body is missing. ******* has kept Sinwar’s body. Dozens of men and children took part in the prayers.

And in Wadi al-Zayne, a town in Lebanon’s Chouf region with a significant ************ population, Bilal Farhat said that Sinwar’s ****** made him a symbol of heroic resistance.

“He ***** fighting on the front line. It gives him some sort of mystical hero aura,” Farhat said.

Some Palestinians took to X to criticize Sinwar and dismiss his ****** in comparison to their own suffering. One speaker on a recorded discussion said there is no way of telling how he *****. Another blamed him for 18 years of suffering, calling him a “crazy man” who started a war he couldn’t win. “If he is dear, we had many more dear ones *******,” one yelled.

In the long run, the think tank’s Abu Amer said that the effect of the support and empathy for Sinwar after his ****** is unlikely to change the ***** public’s view of Oct. 7 and what followed.

“Those who supported Oct. 7 will continue to, and those who opposed Oct. 7 — and they are many — will keep their opinions, even if they show sympathy or admiration for him. Most Palestinians are now focused on ending the war,” he said.

___

Fatma Khaled reported from Cairo. Julia Frankel and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Edith M. Lederer at the ******* Nations, Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report .

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#******** #footage #minutes #****** #leaders #life #symbol #defiance

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up