Hamas confirms death of Yahya Sinwar, vows no hostage release until war ends

Hamas vowed on Friday it would not release the hostages it seized during its Oct.7 attack on Israel until the Gaza war ends, as it mourned the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar. The Palestinian group confirmed its leader Yahya Sinwar had been killed, a day after Israel announced his death in Gaza.

"We mourn the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim," Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil Al Hayya said in a recorded video statement broadcast by Al Jazeera.

Sinwar became Israel's most wanted man after the Oct.7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.

Israel announced Sinwar's death on Thursday, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "heavy blow" to the Palestinian group Israeli forces have been fighting in Gaza more than a year.

In his statement, Hayya said Hamas would not release the captives until the war in Gaza ends. The hostages "will not return... unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops," the senior Hamas official said.

He called on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Hayya said the group would take strength from Sinwar's killing, which he said has set him among "the leaders and symbols of the movement who preceded him."

Directing the fighting in the Palestinian territory as its Gaza leader throughout the war, Sinwar was named the movement's overall chief in August, after the death of Hamas's political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.

Sinwar had not been seen in public since the Oct.7 attack, and Israeli commanders believed he hid in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas built under the Gaza Strip over the years.

Both Hamas and Hizbollah, which hailed Sinwar as a martyr who can inspire others in challenging Israel, AP reported.

"We, and countless others around the world, salute his selfless struggle for liberation of the Palestinian people,” Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote on the X social media platform. "Martyrs live forever, and the cause for liberation of Palestine from occupation is more alive than ever.”

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday Sinwar’s death provides "an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire” and suggested the US could have a role in helping to stabilise Gaza in the future. "Hopefully countries in the region will step up there,” Austin said at a Nato meeting in Brussels.

Agence France-Presse