Palestinian group Hamas announced Tuesday, August 6, that its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar will be its new political leader, replacing the assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, reports said.
The announcement came a week after its politburo chief Haniyeh was assassinated in his Tehran accommodation, hours after he attended the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran has blamed the assassination on Israel and vowed a harsh response.
In the midst of a war that is not going well at all for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in terms of its international optics, he has been delivered a serious political blow by the country’s Supreme Court.
The Israeli Cabinet has agreed to a four-day ceasefire and a deal with the Hamas to secure the release of 50 hostages, including women and children, being held in Gaza since the war erupted on October 7. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet meeting late Tuesday night that the country will not stop the war.
As apprehended, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in candid terms that in the aftermath of the current war against Hamas, Israel will oversee Gaza’s security “for an indefinite period.”
It would not quite be reoccupation but could be nearly so, 18 years after Israel left Gaza even though the prime minister is not saying that.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has drawn a parallel between the November 2008 (26/11) terrorist attacks by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Mumbai and the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, emphasizing that all acts of terrorism are “unlawful and unjustifiable.”
President Joe Biden is set to visit Israel on Wednesday at a time when the country is facing its toughest battle with the terrorist group Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday said that President Biden is coming to Israel at a “critical moment” and will reaffirm the US’ solidarity with Israel.
Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli has thanked the Indian leadership, people of India for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel in its fight against Hamas. “I want to thank the leadership of India, the people of India for being with us shoulder-to-shoulder in this fight against brutal jihadist barbaric Islamist. This is not just our war, this is your war too and we will win it together with your support,” he said.
One interesting question to consider in the current brutal fight between Israel and Hamas is whether the United States would view the now scuppered possibility of a Saudi Arabia-Israel accord with the same urgency as it did its own détente with the Soviet Union in 1973 amid the Yom Kippur war almost exactly around the same time fifty years ago.
