Gaza
\nMany Israelis cheered and danced on the streets at the news that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – chief architect of the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel – had been killed.
\nBut his death at the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza on Wednesday has raised anxieties for families of the 101 hostages still held by Hamas.
\nMeanwhile, few Palestinians believed Sinwar\u2019s killing would bring an end to the devastating year-old war in Gaza.
\nIsrael\u2019s military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 42,500 Palestinians, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says. It followed Hamas\u2019s attack on Israeli communities on 7 October last year, which killed about 1,200 people and saw the group take 251 hostages.
\nPeople in Israel were overwhelmingly supportive of Sinwar\u2019s killing in a chance encounter with Israeli troops.
\nIn Tiberias in northern Israel, several hundred people danced, waved flags and played loud music at the news.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very good\u201c, Nissim Weizmann told the BBC as he sat outside a grocery shop in the town.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a bad man and his time has come. This is a present for everyone. Both Palestinians who are with us and the Jews.\u201d
\nAt a beach just south of Tel Aviv, bathers cheered and applauded when a lifeguard first announced rumours of the death over a loudspeaker.
\nBut others were more circumspect, wondering how Sinwar\u2019s killing would affect prospects for the release of Israeli hostages who continue to be held by Hamas in Gaza.
\n\u201cTo be honest, I feel a bit numb,\u201d Anat Ron Kandle in Tel Aviv told the Reuters news agency.
\n\u201cI have a deep concern for the hostages, and it\u2019s very difficult to find faith and hope.
\n\u201cAnd I always think about, what if that could have been me, [it] could have been my son that was with me?\u201d
\nFamily members of the remaining 101 hostages still in Gaza gathered in Tel Aviv after the news broke.
\nThey have been demonstrating for months, urging the Israeli government to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas to get their relatives home.
\nEinav Zangauker, whose son Matan was taken hostage, urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: \u201cDon\u2019t bury the hostages.\u201d
\n\u201cGo out now to the mediators and to the public and lay out a new Israeli initiative,\u201d she said to Reuters.
\n\u201cIf Netanyahu doesn\u2019t use this moment and doesn\u2019t get up now to lay out a new Israeli initiative – even at the expense of ending the war – it means he has decided to abandon the hostages in an effort to prolong the war and fortify his rulership.\u201d
\nIn Gaza, some Palestinians said they believed Sinwar\u2019s death could open a path towards ending the war, saying it left Israel with \u201cno reason to continue this genocide\u201d.
\n\u201cThey always said they wanted to eliminate Sinwar to stop this war,\u201d Ali Chameli told Reuters.
\nBut the reality on the ground since his killing was \u201cquite the opposite\u201d, said Jemaa Abou Mendi.
\nSpeaking to the AFP news agency, he said: \u201cthe war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated.\u201d
\nSpeaking in the city of Khan Younis, which has been largely left in ruins by a year of bombardment and fighting, Dr Ramadan Faris said the outcome of the war did not depend on any single person\u2019s fate.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a war of extermination against the Palestinian people, as we all know and understand,\u201d he said.
\nAlso in Khan Younis was Lina Anuni, who fled Gaza City with her three children a year ago.
\n\u201cI opposed [Sinwar] while he was alive and hold him equally responsible, alongside the Israeli occupation, for my suffering and that of 2.3 million Palestinians,\u201d she told the BBC.
\n\u201cYet, I felt a sense of sadness at his passing,\u201d she added.
\nOne man, who chose not to be identified, told the BBC World Service\u2019s Gaza Today programme that though there were \u201cdiffering opinions\u201d about the former Hamas leader, his death would not change things for people in Gaza.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t believe this will change the dynamics of the conflict,\u201d he said, citing how the deaths of other senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures – like Hassan Nasrallah last month – had resulted in \u201cnothing fundamentally\u201d shifting.
\n\u201cInstead, tensions escalated further, raising concerns for us as Palestinians,\u201d he said.
\nSome Palestinians described Sinwar as a martyr.
\nYousef Jamal, who said he supported the 7 October attack on Israel, said: \u201cHe [Sinwar] did not hide among the displaced, seek refuge with enemy prisoners, or retreat into tunnels.\u201d
\nYahya Sinwar, 61, was said to have spent much of his time hiding in tunnels along with a small team of bodyguards and a \u201chuman shield\u201d of hostages seized from Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza Many Israelis cheered and danced on the streets at the news that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – chief architect of the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel – had been killed. But his death at the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza on Wednesday has raised anxieties for families of the 101 hostages still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-438348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n