Sinwar is considered by Israel to be the architect of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year and is considered by Israel as its number one enemy. Sinwar took over as Hamas leader after the assassination of Hamas' political leader in Tehran, Iran. Sinwar is also considered by the US, Israel and their allies as the main obstacle to any agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israel had previously killed several senior leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. The significance of Sinwar’s death for Israel was best revealed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that Sinwar’s death was not the end of the war but the beginning of the end.
It seems that Netanyahu and his allies are too optimistic. It is true that Israel’s attacks, airstrikes and manhunts against the leadership and fighters of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon have weakened both forces in terms of political and military leadership. The war will eventually come to an end, but Sinwar’s death is certainly not the beginning of the end of the war between Israel and Hamas. Reconciliation and peace are not known when they will be possible due to deep-rooted historical reasons, because the true nature of the rivalry is ideological friction and conflict.
If this new era has already begun, what era will it be? The direct and indirect parties involved answer these two questions differently. Hamas and Hezbollah will change their strategies and tactics to prolong the war and to drag Israel and its allies deeper and deeper into military and political rivalry.
The three big unknowns now are whether the new Hamas and Hezbollah military and political leadership will be more moderate or more hard-line toward Israel than their predecessors; how Iran will behave and how the confrontation between Iran and Israel will develop; and whether Israel's current adversaries will unite and form a coalition to confront Israel.
Looking at it this way, it can be predicted that if a new era begins, this new era will still be the same in nature as war and rivalry, only in the form of expression and the extent of war and rivalry.
