Biden says Sinwar’s death is an ‘opportunity’ for a hostage deal and an end to war in Gaza

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops is a “good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” calling it an “opportunity” to free hostages held by the militant group and end the yearlong war in Gaza.

U.S. officials expressed measured optimism that the killing of a militant characterized by national security adviser Jake Sullivan as a “massive obstacle to peace” might breathe new life into cease-fire talks that have failed to produce a breakthrough despite periodic signs of progress.

“Over the past few weeks, there have been no negotiations for an end to the war because Sinwar has refused to negotiate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Thursday. “We now see an opportunity with him having been removed from the battlefield, being removed from the leadership of Hamas, and we want to seize that opportunity.”

Biden, in a statement as he was on his way to Germany, compared the reaction to Sinwar’s death to the feeling in the U.S. after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He said the killing of the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel “proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.”

Biden said he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them “and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all.” Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The inability to reach a cease-fire that could end the war in Gaza and also deliver the return of the hostages has bedeviled negotiators from the start.

The U.S. has been working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar on a cease-fire proposal in Gaza since the war began a year ago, sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other envoys to the Middle East multiple times to try to broker a deal without success.

Last month, on Blinken’s 10th trip to the region since the war in Gaza began, he skipped Israel and withheld optimistic projections of a breakthrough.

“On multiple occasions over the past months, Sinwar rebuffed efforts by the United States and its partners to bring this war to a close through an agreement that would return the hostages to their families and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Blinken said in a statement Thursday.

The halting progress and seemingly conflicting priorities have caused friction in the Biden-Netanyahu relationship as the Israeli leader’s pledge to achieve “total victory” against Hamas has clashed with U.S. officials’ concerns about large-scale civilian casualties in Gaza. Israeli leaders presented the killing of Sinwar as a moment for Hamas to surrender.

The Biden administration also had urgently called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah to avoid the possibility of all-out war in the Middle East before shifting its message after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike and pressed ahead with a ground invasion in Lebanon.

Biden said with Sinwar’s death “there is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

He praised U.S. special operations forces and intelligence operatives who helped advise Israeli allies on tracking and locating Sinwar and other Hamas leaders over the past year — though the U.S. said the operation that killed Sinwar was an Israeli one.

Sullivan said Sinwar’s removal from the battlefield does present an opportunity to find a way forward that gets the hostages home.”

“Now we will have to work to ensure that his death actually does deal the kind of long-term blow to Hamas that of all of us would like to see,” he said.

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Miller reported from Washington. AP reporters Matthew Lee and Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.