Adel Misk: Post-Sinwar ‘momentary void’ will not stop the fight against Israel
For the Palestinian activist, the struggle is bound to continue, because it has "deeper roots" than the leaders who fight. Netanyahu claims a victory to offer to the Israeli people, but killing a man “does not eliminate an idea". Sinwar’s death will likely have repercussions for the talks on a truce and the fate of the hostages still held by Hamas.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – The killing of Yahya Sinwar has created a “momentary void” within “a party that has ruled for years” in Gaza and which faces an immediate future that is "not simple". Yet, despite “the elimination of senior leaders, the party is not dead, just as it was not dead when Ismail Haniyeh was eliminated in Tehran.” The same applies to Lebanon’s Hezbollah when its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed.
This is what Adel Misk, a neurologist by profession and Palestinian civic leader, said speaking to AsiaNews, after Israeli leaders announced yesterday the death of the Hamas military leader.
Sinwar masterminded the attack on 7 October last year against Israel that saw 1,200 people killed and the abduction of more than 200 people, some of whom are still held by the radical Islamist movement, which set off the war in Gaza.
The conflict has caused more than 43,000 deaths in the Palestinian territory and has now spread north, involving Lebanon and Hezbollah, and risks setting the entire region ablaze, with an open confrontation between Israel and Iran.
“Killing a person, even a leader does not eliminate an idea,” Adel Misk explained. “Of course, a void is created, but the conflict does not end, and one of the many questions now is who can be the successor and carry on his legacy.”
For the activist, this is not a minor issue because “the point now is who will negotiate an end to the war or discuss a hostage deal. This is a big question. They (Israeli leaders) are celebrating what they call a 'great victory', but I am not so sure that it can be considered as such.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried out this operation “to please public opinion" in his country, but if before "there was an interlocutor for negotiations, which also involve the more than 10,000 Palestinians in the prisons" of the Jewish State, now, "there is a void. If I were Israeli, I would be very worried.”
The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Israel's most wanted man, represents one of the key moments in the Gaza war, although it is still hard to predict future developments.
He was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza, from parents originally from Ashkelon, now in southern Israel, who were among the masses of Palestinians displaced in the war that followed the founding of Israel in 1948.
Sinwar was arrested for the first time in 1982, at the age of 19, for "Islamic activities" and imprisoned a second time in 1985. During this period, he won the trust of Hamas’s historic founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
He spent most of his adult life in Israeli prisons (from 1988 to 2011), where he established himself as a charismatic leader, learnt Hebrew, and studied the "Israeli enemy" up close, before his release as part of a prisoner exchange that saw a thousand Palestinians freed for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The reactions to the news of the killing of the Hamas leader were immediate, starting with Netanyahu who praised the "brave soldiers" of the Israel Defence Forces who carried out the mission.
While the Israeli prime minister praised the military, the killing, as reported after the announcement, was the result of chance, not a planned intelligence operation.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah announced a new phase in the war with Israel characterised by a “transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy, which will be reflected in the developments and events of the coming days,” starting with the use of precision-guided missiles.
For its part, Iran said that Yahya Sinwar’s death will strengthen "the spirit of resistance" while he “will become a model for young people and children who will continue his path towards liberation" from the "occupation and aggression" of the Jewish state.
Adel Misk, a leading figure in The Parents Circle, an association that brings together about 250 Israelis and 250 Palestinians who lost family members in the conflict, underlines how "the situation is worsening day after day, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. We are witnessing the destruction of a territory and the extermination of a community,” he said, slamming most governments and the international community for their “guilty silence”.
He does not blame peoples: “Even in Europe, we see solidarity with the Lebanese and the Palestinians, but not from political decision-makers and those in power. [More than] Seventy years (after the Second World War and the holocaust of the Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany), the victims of that time have turned into executioners.”
For the Palestinian activist, Sinwar's death does not mark the end of the "struggle against the occupier,” which has deeper roots, and are "at the basis of what happened on 7 October.” There was a Palestinian attack but few look into or remember “the causes that generated it”.
Military rule, “in 18 years, has turned Gaza into a prison, where residents are under strict control and cannot move freely.” And the war has caused even greater devastation “with 43,000 dead, 100,000 injured, two million people forced to leave their homes, 80 per cent of which have been demolished.”
These critical issues do not concern only Gaza, but also touch the entire West Bank where Israel is engaged in another, silent war along with that in Gaza.
"[Israeli leaders] want to redraw the borders, draw a new map," he stressed, "like the one presented by Netanyahu at the last UN General Assembly: there is no Gaza, there is no West Bank, everything is shamelessly erased in front of the world. We witness this violence every day, from Jenin to Nablus to Bethlehem.”
For Misk, it remains to be seen what steps Hamas will take in the near future, and whether "it will be able to become a full-fledged political movement under the umbrella of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation), and move closer to Fatah thanks to ongoing talks.”
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