Israel and Hamas at War, Day 305 | Hamas Appoints New Leader

(Jerusalem) Hamas announced Tuesday that its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, one of Israel’s most wanted men, had been appointed head of the movement, after the assassination of his predecessor which revived fears of a military escalation in the Middle East.

“The appointment of arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar as head of Hamas, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, is an additional reason to eliminate him quickly and wipe this despicable organization off the map,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately reacted on X.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that it was up to Mr. Sinwar to decide on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip with Israel.

“Mr. Sinouar was and remains the first decision-maker regarding the conclusion of a ceasefire” in the Palestinian territory, he stressed.

Iran, Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have accused Israel of assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, on July 31 in Tehran, and vowed to avenge him.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised a response against Israel, “whatever the consequences,” after this assassination and that of the military leader of the Lebanese Islamist movement, Fouad Chokr, killed on July 30 in an Israeli strike near Beirut.

Hezbollah and Iran are “obliged to retaliate,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a live speech. Hezbollah will retaliate “alone or as part of a unified response” by Iran and its allies in the region, he said.

Earlier, a low-altitude flight over Beirut by Israeli military aircraft, which broke the sound barrier, caused panic in the Lebanese capital.

A Hamas official said Tuesday that the appointment of Yahya Sinwar sent a “strong message” to Israel, ten months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the unprecedented attack carried out by the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7.

Hezbollah also spoke in a statement of a “strong message” addressed to Israel, and judged that the choice of Mr. Sinouar “confirms that the enemy has not been able to fulfill its objectives” against Hamas.

The Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival of Hamas, for its part considered the appointment of Mr. Sinouar to be “logical” and “expected”, hailing, through the voice of one of its leaders, Jibril Rajoub, a “pragmatic, realistic and logical personality.”

The Israeli army and authorities accuse Yahya Sinouar of being one of the masterminds of the attack.

Minutes after his appointment was announced, a salvo of rockets was fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, claimed by the armed wing of Hamas.

Attack imminent?

Tensions across the region have redoubled following the assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shokr, raising fears of a military escalation between Israel on the one hand, and Iran and allied groups in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq on the other.

Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death, but vowed after the October 7 attack to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union.

The Israeli army, however, claimed responsibility for the strike that killed Fouad Shokr, who Israel said was responsible for an attack that killed 12 children and teenagers on July 27 in the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel annexed. Hezbollah had denied any involvement.

Israel has been on alert for nearly a week, awaiting the response promised by Iran and its allies.

However, according to a European diplomat based in Tel Aviv, the absence of a change in the army’s directives to civilians means, in theory, that an attack is not so imminent.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday publicly called on Iran and Israel for the first time to avoid “escalating” into a new military conflict in the Middle East amid the war in Gaza.

“There should be no escalation by anyone in this conflict. We are engaged in intense diplomacy with allies and partners and are delivering that message directly to Iran. We have delivered that message directly to Israel,” the Secretary of State said at a joint news conference with Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and their Australian counterparts, Penny Wong and Richard Marles.

“Our commitment to Israel is unwavering. We will continue to defend Israel against attacks by terrorist groups or their supporters, just as we will continue to defend our troops,” Blinken said, referring to Iran and its network of regional partners such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Diplomatic contacts increased again on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with the Emir of Qatar, the main mediator in the Gaza war, about “efforts for de-escalation” […] including through an immediate ceasefire and an agreement on the release of the hostages,” according to the White House.

Joe Biden also had a telephone conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

” Collective action ”

“There is a possibility of war between us and Israel […] “We cannot deny it,” said Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who was in Cairo on Tuesday.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah has exchanged fire almost daily with the Israeli army along the border separating southern Lebanon from northern Israel.

In this context, several countries have called on their nationals to leave Lebanon and airlines have suspended their connections with Beirut.

On Tuesday, six Hezbollah fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Islamist movement, which announced that it had targeted several Israeli positions.

Regional authorities in northern Israel on Tuesday urged residents to stay close to shelters after rocket fire from Hezbollah.

Seven Americans were also injured Monday in a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq, according to a U.S. official. The Pentagon blamed the attack on “Iran-aligned militias.”

At the same time, the Israeli army continues its bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip.

An Israeli drone strike has killed one person, according to rescuers in Deir el-Balah, in the centre of the Palestinian territory.

“There needs to be stronger collective action from the world” to ensure the safety of Gazans, Hassan Morajea, regional adviser in Deir el-Balah for the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council, said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military announced Tuesday that the last person missing after the October 7 attack had died. The attack killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people abducted, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has so far killed 39,653 people, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not provide details on the number of civilian and combatant deaths.

Ultra-Orthodox raid military base

Ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed to compulsory military service in Israel stormed a military base near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, the army said.

“Dozens of protesters attempted to break into the Tel Hashomer base during demonstrations that took place outside” the complex, the headquarters of the Israeli army’s recruitment unit, it said in a statement.

Some protesters, members of radical groups within ultra-Orthodox Judaism, managed to infiltrate the base before being expelled by police, according to the same source.

The military condemned the protesters’ “violent behavior” and insisted they must be “brought to justice.”

“The conscription of ultra-Orthodox citizens is a necessity and is being carried out in accordance with the law,” the army stressed.

Historically, ultra-Orthodox Jews were exempt from mandatory military service in Israel if they devoted themselves to the study of Jewish sacred texts, under a rule established by David Ben-Gurion, the founder of the State of Israel, in 1948.

But in June, the Supreme Court ordered the conscription of Talmudic school students, ruling that the government had no right to continue exempting them from serving in the army “in the absence of an adequate legal framework.”

Since the army announced in mid-July that it was sending conscription notices to ultra-Orthodox Jews, protests against any form of military service among ultra-Orthodox Jews have multiplied in Israel.