DEMOCRACY NOW
Israel announced Thursday it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, releasing a video allegedly showing Sinwar’s final moments before his death after Israeli forces in Rafah attacked the building he was in. After the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “this is not the end of the war in Gaza.” In Tel Aviv, Israeli families called for Netanyahu to refocus efforts on negotiating a deal to free the hostages. “They are torn because they are clever enough to understand that the killing of Sinwar does not mean the release of their loved ones,” says Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist and author, who says Netanyahu will continue to act through sheer force as he sets his sights on Iran with the full support of the United States.
Transcript
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting today with ministers and heads of security agencies at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we’re joined by Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist and author, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, where he’s also a member of the editorial board.
Gideon, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the response in Israel to Israel’s killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar?
GIDEON LEVY: As you can imagine, Amy, there is a lot of sense of joy and pride. The media is encouraging it, obviously. The main headline of the most popular newspaper in Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth, says, “The Satan was assassinated.” The mood is of big content and of really feeling that justice prevailed and this Hitler was assassinated. Nobody asks what will be the day after. Nobody asks what did Israel benefit out of it. We are all celebrating the killing of the Satan.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what the families of hostages are saying, where you are, in the city of Tel Aviv? It seems like there wasn’t — they didn’t skip a beat yesterday in their protest of Netanyahu as they demanded a ceasefire.
GIDEON LEVY: Yeah, they are torn, because they are clever enough to understand that the killing of Sinwar does not mean the release of their beloved ones. On the contrary, it might even postpone it or maybe even miss it totally, because as long as Sinwar was alive, there was a partner. Now with whom will Israel deal about any kind of hostage deal, if Israel is at all interested in?
The feeling is that Netanyahu, now he’s boosted by much more support in Israel after this success, this military success of assassinating Sinwar. For him, the hostages were and still are not the first priority. And why would it now happen after it didn’t happen for a whole year? I doubt it. Why would Hamas go for it now? When it’s so beaten and there is so little to lose, why would they now care about releasing the hostages, almost their last asset? So, I understand that the families — they don’t speak in one voice, and it shouldn’t be one voice. But at least part of them are really in anxiety that maybe the last chance for releasing their beloved one was missed.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what we understand of how Yahya Sinwar was killed? He was not in the tunnels. The video that Israel is putting out of him sitting in a chair, he was in Rafah. Who the forces were who moved into that place, and the significance of that, Gideon Levy?
GIDEON LEVY: First of all, it was totally incidental. I must praise the Israeli information system of propaganda, or hasbara, as they call it. At least they admitted that it was not planned. They didn’t try to show it as if it was a very planned operation. It wasn’t. And he was killed. First they bombed this house where he was, and then a drone got into the house and showed him in his last moments. Quite pathetic video. And then they shot him in his head, as we saw, twice at least, because there are two holes in his head. And they killed him. He was masked, as you saw, trying to hide from being recognized.
But in any case, it doesn’t matter much. The fact is that Israeli intelligence couldn’t find him for one year. The fact is that Israeli intelligence couldn’t find the hostages for one year in a very small piece of land, Gaza Strip, where Israel is controlling now for one year. And finally, they found him. I mean, it was so expected. How couldn’t he be found finally, when Israel is searching after him for so long and really destructing every building and every street in Gaza? So, finally, they succeeded, obviously. It’s not a hell of a success, but in Israel they are quite happy about it. And I can understand the sentiment.
AMY GOODMAN: So, where does what Israel plans to do with Iran fit into this story?
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