Residents at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon described the reported killing of Yahya Sinwar as a “great loss” as they paid tribute to the Hamas leader.
“We are proud of the role that he played,” said Ali al-Rifai, a Palestinian workers’ union official, speaking from the camp in Mar Eliyas in Beirut.
“We consider this a great loss because he was able to hurt the Israeli enemy. However, the Palestinian resistance in Gaza will be able to restore its combat position after his loss.”
An Associated Press reporter at the camp spoke to several other residents there who echoed the sentiments but did not want to speak on camera.
Israeli forces said they killed Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, during fighting in Gaza.
Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israel’s most-wanted man.
Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores just over a year after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others in an attack that stunned the country.
Palestinians on the other hand have mourned Sinwar, who they saw as a symbol of resistance to the decades-long occupation of Israel.
U.S. officials expressed hopes for a cease-fire with Sinwar out of the picture.
But eliminating him may not end the devastating war, during which Israel has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children.
Sinwar’s death is a crippling blow to Hamas, but the group, which receives support from Iran, has proven resilient to past losses of leaders.
A statement issued by one of Hamas’ political leaders abroad on Friday tacitly — but not directly — confirmed Sinwar’s death.
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