Description
Dr Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor of Defence Studies at King's College London, said the confirmation would come as an 'extremely symbolic event for Israel' after more than a year embroiled in intense fighting with Hamas in Gaza.Dr Krieg told MailOnline: 'Even if you degrade the core of the network, the network itself will likely continue fighting.
'What we're likely going to see is that different cells across Gaza will likely continue to resist. And that's also where hostages are being held.
'The key issue will be for the mediators – for Egypt, for Qatar – to actually speak to someone. Haniyeh was a very important interlocutor. Sinwar was the interlocutor afterwards. He's now been killed… So we have a bit of a leadership vacuum.
'That will make negotiation extremely difficult and will make it very difficult to move forward in terms of achieving the war aims, which was getting the hostages back.
Netanyahu can now 'build the narrative' that 'we've decimated Hamas' and focus on 'more pressing issues' like defending the northern border said Dr Krieg.
Some 60,000 people remain displaced after more than a year of conflict with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Dr Krieg added: 'I very much think that this now allows Netanyahu to focus much more on Iran, and even potentially to draw capacity away to other theatres.'
But radicals in his circle may still want to press on with the war, leaving no room for Hamas to recover - at the expense of countless more lives.
'I think the hardliners in the government now also have enough of a boost to say: we can go all the way, and sacrificing the hostages along the way,' he continued.
| Period | 18 Oct 2024 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Daily Mail, United Kingdom |
Keywords
- Gaza
- Sinwar
- Hamas
- Israel