Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will not halt the “Axis of Resistance”, and that Hamas would live on. Palestinian militant group Hamas confirmed his killing in Gaza on Friday, a day after Israeli authorities announced the death.
“His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front” against Israel, “but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar“, Khamenei said in a statement on Saturday as reported by Reuters and other agencies.
‘Axis of Resistance’ is a network of Iranian-backed militias and political groups in the West Asia dedicated to confront the influence of Israel and United States in the region. The US designates most of these groups as terrorist organisations.
Sinwar was killed by a gunshot wound to the head in southern Gaza during a firefight, Dr Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s national forensic institute, said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday.
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His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front… but it will not end at all with the martyrdom of Sinwar.
Sinwar was the chief ofHamasin Gaza during the October 7 attack that ignited the conflict and took on the role of the group’s overall leader following the July assassination of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.