Middle East: Berlin urges hostage release after Sinwar death – DW – 10/17/2024

A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza — The Hostages and Missing Families Forum — welcomed the news about Yayha Sinwar’s death.

But the group added that families were still worried about the fate of their loved ones being held in Gaza.

“While acknowledging the significant achievement, the families of the hostages express grave concern for the fate of 101 men, women and children, still held captive by Hamas, and urge leveraging this major achievement into an immediate deal to secure hostages’ return,” the group wrote on X.

Families and supporters of the hostages also took to the streets of Tel Aviv calling for a deal to bring them home and end the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the death of Yahya Sinwar offered the chance of peace in the Middle East but warned that the war in Gaza was not over.

“Today we have settled the score. Today evil has been dealt a blow but our task has still not been completed,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video statement.

“To the dear hostage families, I say: this is an important moment in the war. We will continue full force until all your loved ones, our loved ones, are home.”

The German Foreign Ministry posted on X that Sinwar was a “brutal murder and terrorist who wanted to destroy Israel and its people.”

“As the mastermind of the terror on October 7, he brought death to thousands of people and immeasurable suffering to an entire region,” the ministry wrote, attributing quotes to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

“Hamas must now immediately release all hostages and lay down its weapons; the suffering of the people in Gaza must finally end,” it added.

Middle East analyst Avi Melamed told DW that the death of Yahya Sinwar may raise hopes of bringing home Israeli hostages held by militants in Gaza.

“It may encourage the process of bringing hostages home” and “an end” to the war in Gaza, Melamed said. “But for the time being, it is an open question.”

Melamed spoke to DW before Sinwar’s death was confirmed.

The Hamas leader, Melamed said, has long played a role in“building” Hamas’ military capacity over decades. While there were camps within the militant group that may have chosen a more pragmatic approach in terms of dealing with Israel, Sinwar “was able to dictate his will.”

“Sinwar was a major obstacle for ending the war” in Gaza because he didn’t move the slightest on the issue of releasing hostages, Melamed said.

As long as he was in power in Gaza, he was able to “intimidate” factions in Gaza that may have contemplated replacing him or moving toward “some sort of an agreement” with Israel, he added.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported in August that Sinwar had been open to cease-fire negotiations, but set the condition that Israel end its military operations in Gaza first.

Melamed said it would be “interesting to see the ramifications of what seems to be like the elimination of Sinwar.”

Yahya Sinwar, one of the chief architects of Hamas’ attack on Israel last year and the most wanted man by Israel’s military, was killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza, the IDF said on Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army,” saying it would “create the possibility to immediately release the hostages.”

Read the full story about the strike that killed Sinwar here.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Egyptian President  Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi and other officials in Cairo for talks on de-escalating the conflicts in the Middle East, according to an Egyptian statement. 

It is the first visit by an Iranian foreign minister to Egypt in almost 12 years. 

The statement from El-Sissi’s office said the pair discussed “the need to stop regional escalation” and “intensifying efforts toward cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon,” where Israel is at war with the Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

There have been fears the conflict could expand even further after Israel vowed to retaliate for a barrage of missiles fired by Iran earlier in October.

Egypt has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is looking into the possibility that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in an operation in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the IDF said it killed three militants in the operation, but added that “the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed.”

“The IDF and ISA [Israeli Security Agency] are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar,” it said.

The Israeli military said there were no signs of Israeli hostages in the building where the militants were killed.

“The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution,” it said.

There was no immediate response from Hamas.

Sinwar is considered to be the mastermind behind the terror attack on Israel in October 2023 that triggered the Gaza war.

Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah says the Israeli military has not managed to take control of any villages in southern Lebanon since launching its ground offensive there more than two weeks ago.

However, Israeli media said on Thursday that it had taken the village of Aita al-Shab on Thursday, just across the line of demarcation with Israel. Israeli TV Channel 12 released a video showing the Israeli flag flying on a tower surrounded by damaged buildings.

Fadlallah told reporters that Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, would keep fighting “with all available means” to prevent Israel from achieving its goals. 

He also said the group was working with the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament to secure a cease-fire.

“Our goal today is to end the aggression. We will not go into any detail related to the mechanism or solutions,” the legislator said.

Israel says it has killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and seized thousands of weapons since it began its offensive in Lebanon. 

The entire Gaza Strip is experiencing emergency levels of hunger, with Israeli military operations in the enclave hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, a UN-backed global monitor said.

Analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that around 1.84 million people in Gaza, or 86% of the population, were facing high levels of food insecurity. That included 133,000 people living with “catastrophic” levels of hunger.

The monitor warned that the number could rise to 345,000 this winter.

“One year into the conflict, the risk of famine persists throughout the whole Gaza Strip as conflict intensifies and winter approaches,” the IPC said in its report.

The recent “sharp decline” in aid “will profoundly limit the ability of families to feed themselves and access essential goods and services in the coming months, unless reversed,” it added.

The US warned Israel this week that it would cut off military support unless it does more to boost access to humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Israel has said it is acting in accordance with international law and facilitating aid deliveries. It has also accused aid groups and the UN of failing to deliver the aid, and blamed Hamas for stealing supplies.

The IPC was set up in 2004 and is an initiative involving UN agencies, national governments and aid groups.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was checking whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had been killed in Gaza.

The IDF said “three terrorists were eliminated” during the Israeli military’s operations in Gaza, with it being possible one of them was Sinwar.

The military said, “the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed.”

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is believed to be the architect of the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.     

At least 15 people, including children, have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

The ministry, which is run by Hamas, said dozens were also injured. 

Israel’s military said the strike targeted a command center run by militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad inside the school, which is located in the refugee camp of Jabaliya.

Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency unit in northern Gaza, was cited by The Associated Press as saying that the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was struggling to treat the wounded.

“Many women and children are in critical condition,” he said.

Reuters cited Hamas as saying they did not use the school for fighting purposes.

It was not possible to verify the presence of militants in the school at the time of the strike. Israel has repeatedly said its strikes are precise and do not target civilians, but women and children are often killed.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reaffirmed Germany’s commitment to supplying arms to Israel, saying it means Berlin is “constantly ensuring Israel’s defense capability.”

“Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas and to fight it militarily,” Scholz said, adding, however, that Israel must abide by international law in its war against the Palestinian militant group in Gaza.

Speaking on the sidelines of an EU leaders’ summit, the chancellor said a two-state solution, which envisages a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, was the goal.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to discuss the Middle East conflict, migration and Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

A German warship participating in the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has shot down a drone off the Lebanese coast, according to German military and defense officials.

The “Ludwigshafen am Rhein” corvette repelled an approaching drone at around 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), a spokesperson from Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, was cited by the German DPA news agency as saying.

The drone was reportedly shot down around 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the port of Naqoura, in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL is headquartered.

The Bundeswehr spokesperson said German forces were in an “increased risk situation” in Lebanon and that “appropriate protective measures” are currently being taken.

The incident comes amid spiraling tensions in Lebanon, where Israel is carrying out a ground and air offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.  

UNIFIL says its headquarters and positions have repeatedly come under fire, while Israel has urged the UN to move its peacekeepers out of combat areas.

On Thursday, UNIFIL said an Israeli tank “directly” fired on its headquarters in Naqoura, knocking out a watchtower and injuring two peacekeepers.

More than 10,000 troops from more than 50 countries are currently deployed to UNIFIL.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Hossein Salami has threatened Israel with more missile barrages if it attacks Iranian targets.

“Do not repeat your mistake … if you misbehave, if you strike anything of ours either in the region or in Iran, we will again hit you painfully,” he said.

Salami was speaking at the funeral of an IRGC general who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut last month that also killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. 

Israel has already vowed to retaliate for a massive Iranian missile attack earlier in October, sparking international fears of a wider escalation of the conflict.

Israel’s army said it had killed more than 45 militants from Hezbollah in Lebanon in the past 24 hours.

In a statement, the army said it had “attacked 150 terrorist targets,” including weapons depots, rocket launch pads and other infrastructure. 

It said the commander of a battalion in Bint Jubail in southern Lebanon was among the dead.

The information could not be independently verified.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have been displaced in the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including the US and Germany, while the EU classifies only its armed wing as a terrorist group.