Israel: From Haniyeh and Nasrallah to Sinwar… A strategic failure

History teaches us that ideas and ideologies do not fade and end with the assassination and killing of their leaders and founders but, rather, they rediscover themselves through its members and staff who emerged, trained and acquired intellectual, ideological and even combat expertise and capabilities.

Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, according to The New York Times, sought to convince Iran and Hezbollah to participate in a qualitative multi-front operation since 2022. This is why the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was delayed by the leader of the Hamas movement and head of the movement’s political bureau. The only Hamas leader who has notable combat capabilities and heads the movement’s political bureau in Gaza and was later elected to the position of head of the movement’s political bureau after the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of the political bureau, in an Israeli assassination operation at the end of July in the heart of Tehran. This prompted an Iranian missile response in early October to avenge the assassination of Haniyeh and then Hassan Nasrallah.

As Israel prepared for retaliation against Iran, Israeli forces unintentionally assassinated a leader who was more extreme and less pragmatic than his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, on a routine patrol in the Sultan neighbourhood.

READ: Palestine tribes mourn Sinwar: ‘He was martyred fighting until his final moment on the front lines’

The airing or leaking of the drone video, which filmed Sinwar without them knowing that the Palestinian leader was discovered by a military force on a routine patrol in Rafah, was the greatest act of foolishness, as it exposed the Zionists’ narratives that Sinwar lives and resides in hideouts and tunnels surrounded by Israeli captives as human shields. They exposed their own lie by showing the video of him fighting on the ground, and alone until his last breath.

Hezbollah’s success in infiltrating Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home with a drone in Caesarea, the luxurious suburb south of Haifa, where other senior officials and the wealthy reside, bypassing all the advanced Israeli and American defences last Saturday morning, causing a massive explosion that hit Haifa and Haifa Bay, and raining a barrage of missiles on the northern settlements, the Galilee and the Golan Heights, proves the accuracy of the threats made of Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, in his third defiant speech since the assassination of Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah. He had stressed that the fighting is continuing and heading towards a new, escalated phase that will be discussed in the coming days; the phase of hurting the enemy by striking a Binyamina base in Haifa with a drone, killing 4 soldiers. The displaced Israelis will not return but, rather, more settlers will be deported from the north.

Yahya Sinwar will go down in history as the only person who inflicted the greatest human loss and the greatest military and intelligence failure on Israel since the Holocaust, with Netanyahu and Israeli leaders admitting to killing more than 1,200 soldiers and civilians (it remains unknown how many of them were killed by mistake by the Israeli occupation forces with friendly fire). Israel decided, out of arrogance and confusion, to air a video from a drone showing Yahya Sinwar’s last moments after he was shot and bombing the house he was protected in, surrounded by a tank. Despite his injury, Sinwar continued to fight until his last breath. His last heroic act was throwing his stick after his hand was injured and amputated, at the drone, which will only inspire millions to fight, be brave and courageous. He brought the power of inspiration and sacrifice to an entire generation, as the Arab media was filled with praise for his heroism, courage and sacrifice amidst complete official Arab silence!

Those who believe that Hamas or any legitimate resistance movement will weaken and retreat after the death of its founders and leaders are delusional. Israel has previously assassinated Hamas leaders in its political and military wings, including the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi, Nizar Rayyan, Saeed Siam and Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut and, recently, the leaders in the movement’s political wing, Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Yahya Sinwar in Rafah, and carried out a failed assassination operation of Khaled Meshaal in Amman. It also assassinated, in various operations, the leaders of the military wing of the Qassam Brigades: Yahya Ayyash, Salah Shehadeh, Ahmed Al-Jaabari and others. However, this will not weaken Hamas, as Hamas leaders, most notably Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy head of the movement’s political bureau, confirmed in a statement when confirming Sinwar’s death and stressing that the Resistance will continue and will follow in the path of the heroic martyr leader, Yahya Sinwar.

 Hezbollah: ‘Sinwar stood up to US, Zionist occupation until his martyrdom’

President Obama assassinated Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan in 2011 – who claimed responsibility for the largest attack inside the US in 2001 – and President Biden assassinated Bin Laden’s successor, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in Afghanistan in 2022. Trump killed the leader of Daesh in northern Syria in 2019. Since the launch of Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa in October 2023, Netanyahu has assassinated military and political leaders, most notably Mohammad Deif, Sinwar, and Ismail Haniyeh. As for Hezbollah, Israel assassinated Hezbollah Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, and his potential successor in devastating raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut within a week, in addition to assassinating the military leaders of the group’s elite forces, the Radwan Division.

While it is true that the impact of these assassinations was painful and affected these organisations, in operational reality, these assassinations did not affect their capabilities. Hezbollah bombed Tel Aviv, Haifa, Acre and the Galilee three weeks after the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, and Hamas fought fearlessly, killing, sniping, booby-trapping buildings and inflicting losses on the invading soldiers, their tanks and vehicles in Gaza. They bombed the Gaza envelope and even Tel Aviv. The Taliban controlled all of Afghanistan after the disordered withdrawal of American forces.

Israel’s failure to achieve its declared war goals of completely defeating Hamas, eliminating its capabilities, freeing the hostages and neutralising Gaza so that it does not pose a future threat to Israel’s security, as well as the lack of clarity about who will run the Gaza Strip the day after the war, as well as its forces remaining in Lebanon, is a strategic loss that makes the immediate victories less important. The euphoria of a temporary victory does not cover up the absence of a clear strategy. The continuation of the Occupation without moving to a strategic vision for a comprehensive solution that achieves permanent, comprehensive and just peace through the establishment of a Palestinian State, as everyone, except Netanyahu and his extremist gang, is demanding, means the continuation of the conflict and violence and the absence of security, stability and strategic victory.

OPINION: Sinwar may have been killed, but Israel can’t kill legitimate resistance

This article appeared in Arabic in Al Quds on 20 October, 2024.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.