The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday that the death in an Israeli operation of the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is a “turning point” of the war, which should lead to the release of all hostages and the end of the conflict.

“This day is a turning point in addition to a military success for Israel. This opportunity must be taken so that all hostages are released and to finally stop this war,” he said at a press conference after the summit of EU heads of state and government.

Macron thus defended “ending military activities” and called for “accepting a ceasefire in Gaza” and “opening a political perspective for Israelis and Palestinians.”

Israel’s guarantees for the security of Palestine

The French president also stressed that “after the end of the war in Gaza, Israel will have to be given guarantees for its security” and also defended the need to “reform the Palestinian Authority” and “move towards the two-state solution.”

“An immediate ceasefire is necessary, urgently multiplying humanitarian operations, which are still at their lowest point, and moving forward to stop the violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank,” he added.

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Born in a refugee camp in Jan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza, Sinwar was elected leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2017 after arbilling a reputation as a bitter enemy of Israel and on August 6 – after the murder in Tehran of the then head of the political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh – he was chosen to occupy the highest position in the organization chart of the Islamist group.

He represented the hardest and most belligerent line of the group and is considered by Israel the mastermind of the attacks of October 7 against Israeli territory in which some 1,200 people died and another 250 were taken hostage, which made him the most wanted man by Israel.

Borrell: Sinwar was “an obstacle” to the ceasefire

For his part, the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Thursday that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli operation, was “an obstacle” on the way to the “urgently needed ceasefire and the release of all hostages.”

“He was a terrorist on the European Union list responsible for the horrible attack of October 7 (2023). Violence must be stopped, hostages must be released and the suffering of Palestinians must be stopped,” Borrell said in a message in X.

In the same vein, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, said that after the death of the leader of Hamas “a new phase has to begin.”

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“It is time for all hostages to be released, for the ceasefire to be proclaimed immediately and for the reconstruction of Gaza to begin,” the president said,” the Italian leader continued.

Regarding Sinwar’s death, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the attack of October 7 last year “was horrible and inhuman” and that “someone who is militarily responsible for Hamas’ activity, of horrible crimes, has lost his life.”

Von der Leyen says that this coup weakens Hamas

In the opinion of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, the death of the top leader of Hamas “significantly weakens” the organization.

“Sinwar was the leader of a terrorist organization, the terrorist organization of Hamas and was basically the brain behind (the attack) of October 7 with the deaths, massacres, rapes and kidnappings. His death certainly weakens Hamas significantly,” Von der Leyen said at the press conference after the European summit held today in Brussels.

The acting Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, said that “it is very difficult to understand what Israel’s goal is” in the war. “We see that they are able to eliminate targets in an almost surgical way, but not every time, because there are already 42,000 dead in Gaza” and he said he was “perplexed.”

After more than a year of war in Gaza, Israel killed Sinwar yesterday in a military operation in the Rafah area, in the southern Strip, the country’s authorities confirmed today.

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Apart from the death of the Hamas leader, European leaders approved some conclusions in which they were “deeply alarmed by the dramatic military escalation in the Middle East” and called for an “immediate ceasefire,” both in Gaza and in Lebanon.

European leaders call for an end to the war

They also condemned Israel’s attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIN) in Lebanon and noted that “all actors have an obligation to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of United Nations personnel.”

At the same time, the EU insisted that Israel “has the right to defend itself,” but that “international law must be respected.”
They also condemned “in the most energetic terms” Iran’s attacks on Israel on October 1 and its actions to “destabilize the East through the Middle East, through terrorist and armed groups, including the Houthi, Hezbulah and Hamas rebels.”

European leaders insisted on their call for the release of living Israeli hostages, as well as the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and Lebanon.

Although not included in the conclusions, Spain and Ireland insisted on the need for the EU to verify whether Israel is fulfilling its humanitarian obligations under the partnership agreement.

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