The Week: Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar Is Dead

• Sinwere.

• The Israeli military has killed Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks and leader of Hamas. This is a wonderful development. His death was confirmed on Thursday by the Israeli government and supported by a powerful photo of Israel Defense Forces personnel standing over his bloody, debris-covered corpse. Sinwar, who remained in Gaza as other Hamas leaders sought refuge abroad, launched the current war by sending an army of terrorists into Israel under the cover of thousands of rockets—to massacre children, rape women, and burn homes to the ground. By the end of that horrific day, 1,200 were dead and 251 were taken hostage and dragged into Gaza. In over a year of fighting, Sinwar has refused to surrender and release the hostages because he preferred to have his people suffer if it meant that world opinion, and the U.S. government, turned against Israel. And as long as Sinwar was alive and defiantly leading Hamas, it was difficult for Israel to view its costly war in Gaza as a success. But his death can be added to a string of major successes by Israel—the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and of dozens of other high-ranking leaders of both terrorist groups. Coupled with the overall campaign, Israel has dealt a significant blow to the proxies of Iran as it contemplates retaliatory steps against Iran itself. The news also serves as a severe indictment of the judgment of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who spent months warning Israel against an invasion of Rafah. Biden said going into Rafah was a “red line” for him while Harris warned there would be “consequences” because she “studied the maps.” But that’s exactly where Sinwar was found and killed. Whatever comes of the next round of American pressure, the job in Gaza will not be done as long as roughly 100 hostages (both alive and dead) remain and Hamas is still in control of the territory and in a position to rebuild. But it is still worth celebrating justice being served on the perpetrator of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

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• Sinwere.

• The Israeli military has killed Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks and leader of Hamas. This is a wonderful development. His death was confirmed on Thursday by the Israeli government and supported by a powerful photo of Israel Defense Forces personnel standing over his bloody, debris-covered corpse. Sinwar, who remained in Gaza as other Hamas leaders sought refuge abroad, launched the current war by sending an army of terrorists into Israel under the cover of thousands of rockets—to massacre children, rape women, and burn homes to the ground. By the end of that horrific day, 1,200 were dead and 251 were taken hostage and dragged into Gaza. In over a year of fighting, Sinwar has refused to surrender and release the hostages because he preferred to have his people suffer if it meant that world opinion, and the U.S. government, turned against Israel. And as long as Sinwar was alive and defiantly leading Hamas, it was difficult for Israel to view its costly war in Gaza as a success. But his death can be added to a string of major successes by Israel—the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and of dozens of other high-ranking leaders of both terrorist groups. Coupled with the overall campaign, Israel has dealt a significant blow to the proxies of Iran as it contemplates retaliatory steps against Iran itself. The news also serves as a severe indictment of the judgment of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who spent months warning Israel against an invasion of Rafah. Biden said going into Rafah was a “red line” for him while Harris warned there would be “consequences” because she “studied the maps.” But that’s exactly where Sinwar was found and killed. Whatever comes of the next round of American pressure, the job in Gaza will not be done as long as roughly 100 hostages (both alive and dead) remain and Hamas is still in control of the territory and in a position to rebuild. But it is still worth celebrating justice being served on the perpetrator of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.