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Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at what the killing of Yahya Sinwar means for the Israel-Hamas war, alleged North Korean troops alongside Russian forces, and U.S. accusations against a former Indian intelligence officer.
The War Trudges On
Hamas confirmed the killing of leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces in a televised eulogy on Friday and vowed to continue its war against Israel. Sinwar’s death “will only increase the strength and resolve of Hamas and our resistance,” said Sinwar’s longtime deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, who has been living in exile in Qatar. Hayya reiterated that Hamas will not end its war against Israel until both sides agree to a truce deal in Gaza that includes a complete Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at what the killing of Yahya Sinwar means for the Israel-Hamas war, alleged North Korean troops alongside Russian forces, and U.S. accusations against a former Indian intelligence officer.
The War Trudges On
Hamas confirmed the killing of leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces in a televised eulogy on Friday and vowed to continue its war against Israel. Sinwar’s death “will only increase the strength and resolve of Hamas and our resistance,” said Sinwar’s longtime deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, who has been living in exile in Qatar. Hayya reiterated that Hamas will not end its war against Israel until both sides agree to a truce deal in Gaza that includes a complete Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel is mistaken if it “believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said on Friday.
Sinwar was killed during a shootout with Israeli forces in southern Gaza on Wednesday, though Israeli troops did not realize that they had killed Hamas’s No. 1 leader until after his death. Sinwar was one of the main orchestrators of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which killed around 1,200 people and took roughly 250 others hostage.
Many hoped that Sinwar’s death would help pave the way for an end to the yearlong conflict. On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden called Sinwar’s killing a “good day for the world” and said, “Now’s the time to move on. … Move toward a cease-fire in Gaza.” He also held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the two leaders discussed “how to use this moment to bring the hostages home and to bring the war to a close with Israel’s security assured and Hamas never again able to control Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the call.
However, Netanyahu vowed late Thursday to continue the war effort. Sinwar’s killing is a “great opportunity to stop the axis of evil,” he said, referring to Iran and its proxies, which include Hamas in Gaza as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli military announced on Friday that it would add an additional brigade of reservists to fight along the Israel-Lebanon border, and it said that its forces had killed Muhammad Hassin Ramal, Hezbollah’s commander of the Tayibe area in southern Lebanon.
In response, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sinwar fought and died “like a hero,” with Iran’s mission to the United Nations adding that Sinwar’s death would fuel a “spirit of resistance.” Hezbollah also announced on Friday that it would enter “a new and escalating phase” in its confrontation with Israel. The group said it shot down two Israeli Hermes 450 drones this week and would introduce new weaponry in the coming days, including precision-guided missiles and explosive drones.
“We had hoped, really throughout this, that getting rid of Sinwar would be the turning point where the wars would end,” a senior diplomat working in Lebanon told Reuters. “It appears we were once again mistaken.”
It is unclear who will succeed Sinwar. Experts believe that a political leader based outside of Gaza will likely fill the role, with Mohammed Sinwar, the late militant leader’s younger brother, likely taking on a bigger responsibility directing the war effort from within the territory. Either Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy and a key negotiator for Hamas, or longtime senior Hamas official Khaled Mashal could fill Sinwar’s spot. Both Hayya and Mashal were front-runners to replace Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh when he was assassinated in Tehran in July but were passed over for Sinwar.
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What We’re Following
Troop support. South Korea’s spy agency accused North Korea on Friday of deploying 1,500 special forces to the Russian port city of Vladivostok for training before being sent to the front lines to fight Ukraine. Seoul said it used facial recognition artificial intelligence to identify North Korean officers in Russian-occupied Ukraine and that the soldiers were disguised to appear as Russian troops.
Moving from providing military supplies to dispatching troops is a “grave security threat not only to our country but to the international community,” the South Korean agency said. For weeks, Kyiv has accused Pyongyang of providing Moscow with ammunition to fight Ukraine. Intelligence experts in Seoul suggest that North Korea has shipped more than 13,000 containers of artillery rounds, ballistic missiles, and anti-tank rockets to Russia since August 2023. In exchange, Russia has allegedly sent aid to bolster North Korea’s economy and help advance its weapons programs. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have dismissed these accusations.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea of preparing to send 10,000 troops to Russia to help in its war effort against Kyiv. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance was unable to confirm that number.
A new indictment. U.S. authorities have charged a former Indian intelligence officer with trying to orchestrate an assassination on U.S. soil. In an indictment unsealed on Thursday, prosecutors accused 39-year-old Vikash Yadav of directing a failed plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City last year. Yadav is believed to be in India, and the United States intends to seek his extradition, the Washington Post reported. Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, Indian national Nikhil Gupta, has already been charged by the U.S. Justice Department and remains at large. New Delhi has not commented on the allegations.
The indictment comes just days after Canada identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last June in British Columbia. New Delhi denied Ottawa’s claims, resulting in both countries expelling several senior diplomats and marking a new low in bilateral relations.
“The diplomatic rupture comes at a time when India has increasingly been accused of practicing ‘transnational repression’” to silence critics abroad, FP’s Rishi Iyengar and Amy Mackinnon report. And while India has treated U.S. allegations more delicately than Canada’s in the past, the recent wave of accusations could sour relations.
Trump blames Zelensky. Former U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Zelensky on Thursday for helping start Russia’s war with Ukraine—further signaling the unlikelihood that a second Trump administration would support Kyiv’s ongoing war effort to the degree that the Biden administration has. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start,” Trump said on a conservative podcast. Zelensky was elected in April 2019, more than five years after Russia first seized control of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Russia then launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The U.S. presidential candidate has repeatedly criticized Zelensky’s efforts to recruit greater Western military aid. “I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Trump said on the podcast. He has long touted his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested that Zelensky should consider ceding some territory to Russia to help end the conflict. On Wednesday, Zelensky presented his “victory plan” for winning the war, which relies heavily on Western financial support and military backing.
What in the World?
Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August. Where was she last spotted?
A. Cairo, Egypt
B. New Delhi, India
C. St. Petersburg, Russia
D. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Odds and Ends
A new fire station in Stadtallendorf, Germany, burned down on Wednesday after a fire department vehicle containing lithium-ion batteries and an external power connection ignited. Ironically, the facility had not been equipped with a fire alarm system. The blaze caused millions of dollars in damage, but thankfully, no one was injured. Authorities had decided not to install fire alarms in the station because experts had considered them unnecessary. Although it’s unclear whether such a system would have prevented the scale of the destruction in this case, officials are now rethinking that decision.
And the Answer Is…
B. New Delhi, India
After mass protests deposed Hasina’s Awami League government, Bangladesh’s interim government is tasked with fixing a weak economy and widespread corruption, Ahmede Hussain writes.
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