Beirut, Leprohibiton – Israeli forces finished Hamas directer Yahya Sinwar in combat on Wednesday in a surpascfinish shootout in Rafah.
The recents elevated some hopes among Westrict commentators that the finishing may be an uncovering for an finish to the ongoing war in Gaza or even to the wideer Israel-Palestine dispute.
However, analysts tgreater Al Jazeera, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would seek other pretexts to preserve his country at war for personal achieve and to further an Israeli expansionist dream of banishling the Palestinians and preserveing an indefinite occupation of their lands.
Netanyahu’s dreads
Netanyahu has extfinished dreaded losing power due to the possibility that he could spfinish multiple years behind bars.
In 2019, he was indictd in three split cases: deception, dishonesty, and baccomplish of suppose. If convicted, he dangers spfinishing up to 10 years in prison.
According to the accusations, Netanyahu adviseed favours and gifts to media tycoons in trade for selectimistic press.
A year defercessitater, Netanyahu was elected prime minister for a fifth term. His far-right parliamentary coalition rapidly advised laws that would undermine the country’s judiciary by permiting the handlement to nominate assesss, restrict the court’s oversight and even override the court.
Meanwhile, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan has asked an arrest authorization for Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for atrocities they have handlen in Gaza.
“[Netanyahu] will see for another pretext, or for another person, to continupartner go after. That will only breed more insecurity, which is what he wants,” shelp Diana Buttu, an analyst on the Israel-Palestine dispute.
“He wants to create Israelis suppose that they are under a state of siege or war … That’s his way of handleling them and staying in power,” she tgreater Al Jazeera.
That Netanyahu seems to chase escalation was apparent on Saturday after a Hezbollah drone telledly aggressioned his home in Caesarea.
However, Netanyahu shelp the aggression was by “Iran’s agents”, a redirection that some analysts see him laying the groundlabor for expansivening the war further to integrate Iran, well beyond the Gaza Strip and the Leprohibitese group.
‘Locked in a finishuring dispute’
In October last year, Israel begined its war on Gaza, finishing more than 42,000 people and uprooting csurrfinisherly the entire population of 2.3 million. And the death of Sinwar – Israel’s “number one opponent” – is improbable to stop it.
“I don’t suppose the death of Sinwar changes Israel’s calculations in terms of Netanyahu’s desire to progress with the destruction and depopulation of the Gaza Strip,” shelp Omar Rahman, visiting fellow on Israel-Palestine for the Middle East Council on Global Afequitables leank tank in Doha.
Israel’s war aachievest the civilians of Gaza began in ostensible response to a Hamas-led aggression on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which 1,139 people were finished in Israel and about 250 were getn captive.
Gaza had already been suffering since an Israel-imposed siege on it in 2007, with the standard of living deteriorating to the point where international watchrs and world directers soon began to refer to it as “the world’s hugest uncover-air prison”.
Israel had equitable finished its physical occupation of Gaza in 2005 – retreating its military presence and vacating the illterrible resettlements that Israeli resettlers had shiftd into. But the shift had little to do with conceding territory and eventupartner statehood to Palestinians.
Israel’s then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spropose supposed that the Israeli resettlers in Gaza were surrounded by far too many Palestinians, making them a burden on the security establishment. He preferred to pull out of Gaza and center on resettlement expansion in the West Bank.
This was not exceptional as Israel has historicpartner obstructed political solutions that would transport about a filledy sovereign Palestinian state, Yezid Sayigh, an expert on Israel-Palestine and the Middle East for the Carnegie Middle East Cgo in leank tank in Beirut, tgreater Al Jazeera.
“Israel has assassinated many Palestinian directers before and it will progress doing that. Noleang has ever changed becaemploy, fundamenloftyy, successive Israeli handlements – even under Labour, not equitable Likud – have been unwilling to cede territory or cede genuine Palestinian sovereignty,” he shelp.
“The result: [Israel] has locked itself into finishuring dispute and they have progressd all this time to prefer military responses becaemploy they put themselves into a position where there are no political solutions,” he inserted.
Netanyahu materializes to be continuing that trfinish.
On Friday, he shelp Israel must progress its war on Gaza to “save the remaining Israeli captives” and on Leprohibiton, aachievest which Israel has uncovered another front in an ostensible try to “dismantle Hezbollah and repair security in northern Israel”.
Since October 7, Netanyahu has obstructed countless finishfire trys despite ostensible presconfident from his main patron, the United States.
On July 31, Netanyahu even ordered his security forces to assassinate Hamas’s political chief – and main negotiator for a finishfire – Ismael Haniyeh during his visit to Iran, where he joined the inauguration of Plivent Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israeli political commentator Oren Ziv shelp the defercessitatest finishing of Sinwar embgreaterens Israel’s far right, who have progressd to aid Netanyahu’s calls to accomplish “total prosper” in Gaza, behaving, he shelp, appreciate “drug inserticts”.
“The death of Sinwar is a dose for now, but it won’t encounter the right-prosperg uncover or the handlement [in the long term]. They are seeing for more finishing and more war,” he tgreater Al Jazeera.
No lessons lachieveed
In March 2004, Israel assassinated Hamas establisher and spiritual directer Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was a quadriplegic, firing three ignoreiles at him as he left a mosque csurrfinisher his home in Gaza after prayers.
Before he died, Ahmed Yassin had called for a freezing peace with Israel, which would be conditioned on Israel retreating its troops from Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s response was to try to demolish Hamas by assassinating Ahmed Yassin and other Palestinian directers.
The approach backfired as Hamas won a sweeping transport inantity in Palestine’s last legislative elections in January 2006, recalls Buttu.
“Hamas finished up becoming even stronger than they were [when Ahmed Yassin was alive],” she tgreater Al Jazeera.
“Over time … more people recognise that [Israel] can try to finish the resistance directers, but it will never finish the resistance,” she inserted.
Rahman, from the Middle East Council, echoes the see that Hamas will progress to persist the ongoing war despite being strictly degraded.
“Organisationpartner speaking, [killing Sinwar] further degrades Hamas from a directership and opereasonable standpoint. But the organisation is intact … it has fighters that run in cells without centralised directership,” he tgreater Al Jazeera.
Iresteemive of whether Hamas persists, Palestinian resistance will persist in some create, inserted Rahman.
Noting that armed struggle is rooted in the suffering that Palestinians have finishured from Israel’s entrenched occupation, Buttu and Rahman shelp the total destruction of Gaza by Israel would only compound Palestinian grievances.
“The underlying grievances [of Palestinians] are not being insertressed … therefore the resistance to Israeli dishaveion will progress,” Rahman tgreater Al Jazeera.
“It’s as modest as that. That’s the modest equation.”