Hamas's top leader is dead. What happens now?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces last week. The Israeli government had been searching for Sinwar ever since he helped orchestrate the deadly Oct. 7 terror attacks last year. While some celebrated Sinwar’s death – and see this moment as a potential catalyst for a ceasefire – Sinwar’s supporters see him as a martyr,
Today, host Martine Powers speaks with The Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Steve Hendrix, about who Sinwar was, the fallout from his death, and whether it changes the likelihood of an end to the war in Gaza.
It was produced by Sabby Robinson with help from Emma Talkoff and Bishop Sand. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick, with help from Reena Flores. Thanks to Jesse Mesner-Hage, Ahemed Shehata and Lisa Jacobson.
Listen to the latest update in the “Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop” series here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Over the past few days, a video has been circulating, a video shot by the Israeli military. |
| 0:10.0 | It shows some of the last moments in the life of Hamas leader Yaya-Sinwar. |
| 0:15.0 | I've watched this video a few times. It's less than a minute and there's no sound. But what you see is from the perspective of a drone flying through the inside of a building that looks like it's been bombed. |
| 0:34.8 | The camera then focuses on a figure who Israeli officials have identified as |
| 0:39.3 | Synwar. |
| 0:40.7 | His face is covered with a Kefia, a Palestinian scarf, and he's slumped in a chair bleeding from the arm. |
| 0:48.0 | As the drone hovers in his line of sight, he uses his other free arm to pick up what looks like a stick and throw it at the camera. |
| 0:56.7 | You know that shortly after this video was taken, tank rounds were fired into the room. |
| 1:02.1 | The next morning Israeli troops entered to find |
| 1:04.8 | San Juarez body. Throughout the Middle East, people who have watched this video |
| 1:11.6 | footage are seeing very different things. |
| 1:14.8 | Israel is portraying Sinoir's final moments as those of a coward and a fugitive decisively |
| 1:21.1 | defeated. Hamas has seized on this video as an image of defiance, a fighter |
| 1:26.7 | until the very end. For my colleague Steve Hendricks, the Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the Post, the battle to define Synoir's death. the visual image that we have of his last hours, |
| 1:44.4 | sort of encapsulates so much about this conflict. |
| 1:47.9 | And as you say, it is being viewed very differently |
| 1:51.4 | on the two sides of this conflict. |
| 1:54.5 | It really gives a window into the conditions in Gaza. |
| 1:59.3 | Our first real glimpse of this figure that's become kind of mythical and elusive in the last year. |
| 2:07.0 | And then of course we know it's the last possible minutes of the man's life. |
| 2:12.4 | So it's this sort of haunting capstone |
| 2:15.6 | to the amazing story of a figure who rose |
... |
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