A report by Foreign Policy magazine confirmed that Israel’s killing of Yahya Sinwar, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), will only increase the ferocity of the movement, and while the matter may seem like a major achievement today, over time others will rise in his place – as is always the case – and the resistance will continue.
Middle East affairs specialist Stephen Cook, a columnist for the magazine, said that history bears witness to the “impossibility of eliminating a resistance movement” by killing its members, and that “those with the cause” will not deter the killing of their leaders, but rather will lead them to redouble their efforts towards achieving their goals.
The writer pointed out that the resistance is not a “futile” project, but rather “an essential part of the identity of those who belong to it,” and for this precise reason, Al-Sinwar did not want to die a natural death, but rather by a tank shell on the battlefield, believing that this would strengthen the resistance.
The writer warned the Israelis not to be too preoccupied with celebrating and distributing sweets than reality, and addressed them by asking: “Do you remember the most prominent founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, or the Palestinian leader Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad)? What about the former Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Abbas Al-Moussawi, or the founder of the Islamic Jihad movement, Fathi Al-Shaqaqi?” They were like monsters to Israel in the past, and it was able to assassinate them all, but the resistance continued.”
He added, “As skilled as the Israelis are in avenging the blood of their dead, they have never succeeded in putting a true end to the resistance over the past decades. What makes them think that killing Sinwar will lead to a different result this time?”
In the writer’s opinion, the killing of Israel Sinwar will not break Hamas, but rather will ignite anger and a desire for revenge in the hearts of its members, just as the assassination of its founder, Hassan al-Banna, in 1949 did not weaken the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Cook believes that Israel’s failed strategy of eliminating movements by targeting their leaders is similar to the mentality of the United States after the September 11 attacks. Despite the American forces killing the founder of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization survived, just as the Islamic State survived after the killing of its founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and these organizations still pose a threat to the United States to this day.