Yahya Sinwar died the way he lived: violently. Israeli fire took out the Hamas leader, apparently by chance, as he traveled with other fighters aboveground in Gaza on Wednesday.
Contrary to some reports, he was not surrounded by Israeli hostages in one of Hamas’s tunnels.
It was a fitting end for the man whose grandiose plan to destroy Israel led Hamas troops to massacre 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That attack set off a war that impelled Israel to attack Gaza, brought about intense human suffering and has subsequently spread to include Hamas’s fellow Iranian-backed “resistance groups” and Iran itself, as Mr. Sinwar hoped.
Yet the war is not going well for Hamas, or its allies and sponsor, as Mr. Sinwar’s death has just dramatically confirmed.
It bears emphasis that Mr. Sinwar had Palestinian as well as Israeli blood on his hands (and the blood of innocents from third countries caught up in the Oct. 7 slaughter).
These include a dozen Gazans, whom Mr. Sinwar, as a young man in charge of Hamas’s security operations, killed personally because he considered them Israeli informers.
They include tens of thousands of civilians (and Hamas fighters) who have lost their lives under Israeli bombs and artillery fire during the past year.
Israel’s responsibility is evident — particularly when civilian deaths result from disproportionate force in violation of the laws of war. At the same time, Palestinian civilian deaths also resulted from Mr. Sinwar’s decisions: to honeycomb the enclave with tunnels and weapons-making plants, to position fighters, booby-traps and weapons among civilians, to provide no safe refuge for Gazans, and, finally, to launch the Oct. 7 attack, all contrary to international law.
Combined with Israeli killings of other top Hamas leaders, Mr. Sinwar’s death fulfills one of Israel’s declared war aims; as such, it might create a turning point in the war.
What’s less clear is whether it will hasten the conflict’s end. Certainly, it would help if Hamas’s remaining rank and file accepted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer after Mr. Sinwar’s death: surrender and release the 97 remaining Israeli hostages (of whom roughly one-third are believed dead) seized on Oct. 7.
That is unlikely.
However, Mr. Sinwar’s killing could create an opportunity for renewed talks on a cease-fire-and-hostage-release deal, since his intransigence was what national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday called a “massive obstacle” to any such agreement. It is an opportunity Mr. Netanyahu should pursue, resisting both his own triumphalist tendencies and advice he is getting from far-right members of his cabinet.
