CAIRO (Dispatches) – For one Gazan father, Yahya Sinwar’s martyrdom in battle trying to beat back a drone with a stick was “how heroes die.” For others, it was an example for future generations.
Sinwar, the architect of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, operation on the Zionist regime, was martyred on Wednesday in a gunfight with Zionist troops after a year-long manhunt, and his death was announced on Thursday.
A video of some of his final minutes, showing him masked and wounded in a shell-smashed apartment trying to hurl a stick at a drone filming him inspired pride among Palestinians.
“He died a hero, attacking not fleeing, clutching his rifle, and engaging against the occupation army at the front line,” a Hamas statement mourning Sinwar’s death said.
“I have watched the video 30 times since last night, there is no better way to die,” said Ali, a 30-year-old taxi driver in Gaza.
“I will make this video a daily duty to watch for my sons, and my grandsons in the future,” said the father of two.
Sinwar’s own words in previous speeches, saying he would rather die at Israel’s hands than from a heart attack or car accident, have been repeatedly shared by Palestinians online.
“The best gift the enemy and the occupation can offer me is to assassinate me and that I go as a martyr at their hands,” he had said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement also expressed “its deepest condolences for the martyrdom of the leader of the Al-Aqsa Flood, head of the Hamas political bureau, the mujahid Yahya Sinwar,” to the Palestinian people, Hamas and the Arab and Islamic nation.
The Supreme Authority for Tribal Affairs in the Gaza Strip expressed its condolences to the Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation and the free people of the world for the martyred national leader Yahya Sinwar “Abu Ibrahim.”
The Palestinian tribes added that Sinwar was martyred while fighting the occupier: “Until his final moment, on the front lines among his men in the field of honor, pride and dignity, watering the land of Palestine with his pure blood.”
The authority continued, “The Palestinian masses will remember the leader Yahya Sinwar for his patriotism, courage, honesty and loyalty to his people and cause.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday strongly condemned the killing of Sinwar by Zionist troops, Anadolu Agency reports.
In a statement on X, Anwar said Malaysia mourns the loss of a “fighter and defender of the Palestinian people.”
“Malaysia strongly condemned the killing, and it was clear that the regime’s attempt to undermine the demand for release would not succeed. Malaysia insists that the international community reject Israel’s barbarity and that the ongoing massacre of Palestinians must be stopped immediately,” he said in his post written in local language.
Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki lamented that Sinwar was martyred defending the land where he was born.
Marzouki posted on his Facebook page: “Lame logic is that Israel, a nuclear state that violates all norms and laws and occupies the lands of others, has, according to the weak phrase they shamelessly continue to repeat, the right to defend itself, but its victims do not have the right to defend themselves even if they are burned in tents, starved and displaced.”
The interim Taliban government in Afghanistan also expressed sorrow over the martyrdom of Sinwar.
In a statement the Taliban sad on Saturday that “We extend our deepest condolences to the Islamic movement of Hamas, to all mujahideen, and especially to the oppressed and courageous Palestinian fighters, on the martyrdom of our heroic mujahid brother, Yahya Sinwar.”
“We call upon Muslims worldwide to stand in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine, to support their cause, and to fulfill the divine duty incumbent upon all of us in this regard,” the Taliban’s statement further read.