Netanyahu says Hamas Gaza chief Sinwar has been killed
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas' Gaza chief and the younger brother of the Palestinian militant group's deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack, Yahya Sinwar, had been killed.
Mohammad Sinwar had been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month and Netanyahu said on May 21 that it was likely he was dead.
The Israeli leader announced that Sinwar had been "eliminated" in an address to the Israeli parliament as he listed off names of other Hamas officials that Israel had killed over the past 20 months, including Sinwar's brother Yahya.
"In the last two days we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas," he said, adding that Israel was also "taking control of food distribution", a reference to a new aid distribution system in Gaza managed by a US-backed group.
Hamas has yet to confirm Sinwar's death.
Netanyahu's announcement comes as the Israeli military has intensified its war campaign in Gaza after breaking a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in March. Israel has said it aims to dismantle Hamas' governing and military capabilities and secure the release of hostages that are still held in Gaza.
The war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas-led militants stormed out of Gaza, rampaging through southern Israeli communities and killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
More than 250 were captured and taken as hostages into Gaza.
Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has decimated the coastal territory, killing more than 53,000, according to health officials in Gaza, and displaced over 2 million Palestinians.
Gazan health officials have said most of those killed have been civilians but have not said how many militants have died.
Israel believes it has killed tens of thousands of militants but has not provided any evidence to support those claims.
Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir on May 26 said Hamas had lost many assets, including its command and control centre.
Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat.
Yahya Sinwar masterminded the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, now in its 20th month, and was later named the overall leader of the group after Israel killed his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
30 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
Russia, Ukraine step up war ahead of peace talks
MOSCOW/KYIV, Ukraine (Reuters) — On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war with one of the biggest drone battles of their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia. After days of uncertainty over whether Ukraine would even attend, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would meet Russian officials at the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul this week. The first round of the talks more than a week ago yielded the biggest prisoner exchange of the war — but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting. Amid talk of peace, though, there was much war. At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia's Bryansk region, neighboring Ukraine, was blown up over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board. No one has claimed responsibility. Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base deep in Siberia on Sunday, a Ukrainian intelligence official said, the first such attack so far from the front lines more than 4,300 kilometers away. Ukraine's domestic intelligence service, the SBU, acknowledged it carried out the attack, code-named "Operation Spider's Web," planned for more than a year and a half. The intelligence official said the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases. A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, the official said. The SBU estimated the damage at $7 billion and said Russia had lost 34 percent of its strategic cruise missile carriers at its main airfields. Zelenskyy expressed delight at the "absolutely brilliant outcome," and noted 117 drones had been used in the attack. "And an outcome produced by Ukraine independently," he wrote. "This is our longest-range operation." A Ukrainian government official told Reuters that Ukraine did not notify the United States of the attack in advance. Russia's Defense Ministry acknowledged on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine had launched drone strikes against Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday. Air attacks were repelled in all but two regions — Murmansk in the far north and Irkutsk in Siberia - where "the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire." The fires were extinguished without casualties. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said. Russia launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force said, the highest nightly total of the war. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the air force said. Russia's military reported new drone attacks into Sunday evening, listing 53 attacks intercepted in a period of less than two hours, including 34 over the border Kursk region. Debris from destroyed drones triggered residential fires. Russia said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and open source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450 square km of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months. US President Donald Trump has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace and he has threatened to walk away if they do not — potentially pushing responsibility for supporting Ukraine onto the shoulders of European powers — which have far less cash and much smaller stocks of weapons than the United States. According to Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, the two sides will in Turkey present their respective documents outlining their ideas for peace terms, though it is clear that after three years of intense war, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart. Russia's lead negotiator, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, was quoted by TASS news agency as saying the Russian side had received a memorandum from Ukraine on a settlement. Zelenskyy has complained for days that Russia had failed to provide a memorandum with its proposals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on prospects for a settlement and the forthcoming talks in Turkey, Lavrov's ministry said. Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. The United States says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022. In June last year, Putin set out opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia. According to a copy of the Ukrainian document seen by Reuters with a proposed road map for a lasting peace, there will be no restrictions on Ukraine's military strength after a deal is struck. Nor will there be international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow's forces, and reparations for Ukraine.
Korea Herald
3 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Bangladesh opens trial of deposed prime minister
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal set up to try Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began proceedings Sunday by accepting charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year. The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal directed investigators to produce Hasina, a former home minister and a former police chief, before the court on June 16. Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2024, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also in India. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al Mamun has been arrested. Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina in December. State-run Bangladesh Television broadcast the court proceedings live. Hasina and her Awami League party had earlier criticized the tribunal and its prosecution team for their connection with political parties, especially with the Jamaat-e-Islami party. In an investigation report submitted on May 12, the tribunal's investigators brought five allegations of crimes against humanity against Hasina and the two others during the mass uprising in July-August last year. According to the charges, Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions that led to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and the denial of medical treatment to the wounded. The charges describe Hasina as the 'mastermind, conductor and superior commander' of the atrocities. Three days after Hasina's ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the nation's interim leader. The Yunus-led administration, which has already banned the Awami League party, amended relevant laws to allow for the trial of the former ruling party for its role during the uprising. In February, the UN human rights office estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks in the crackdown on the student-led protests against Hasina, who ruled the country for 15 years. The tribunal was established by Hasina in 2009 to investigate and try crimes involving Bangladesh's independence war in 1971. The tribunal under Hasina tried politicians, mostly from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for their actions during the nine-month war against Pakistan. Aided by India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father and the country's first leader. In a separate development, Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday cleared the path for the Jamaat-e-Islami party to regain its registration as a political party after a decade — a decision that would enable the party to take part in elections. The country's top court overturned a previous High Court verdict and said it is now up to the Election Commission to formally restore the registration of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party and its election symbol. Yunus said his administration would hold the election by June 2026, but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's archrival, wants the election to be held in December this year. The relation between Zia's party, which is the largest in absence of Hasina's party, and the Yunus-led government has recently been frosty over the poll schedule.
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Trump plans 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum
WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) — US President Donald Trump said he planned to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50 percent from 25 percent, ratcheting up pressure on global steel producers and deepening his trade war. "We are going to be imposing a 25 percent increase. We're going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent — the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States," he said at a rally in Pennsylvania. The doubling of steel and aluminum levies intensifies Trump's global trade war and came just hours after he accused China of violating an agreement with the US to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals. Trump announced the higher tariffs just outside Pittsburgh, where he was talking up an agreement between Nippon Steel and US Steel. Trump said the $14.9 billion deal, like the tariff increase, will help keep jobs for steel workers in the US. He later posted on social media that the increased tariff would also apply to aluminum products and that it would take effect Wednesday. Shares of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs surged 26 percent after the market close as investors bet the new levies will help its profits. The announcement drew harsh reactions from US trading partners around the world. Canada's Chamber of Commerce quickly denounced the tariff hike as "antithetical to North American economic security." "Unwinding the efficient, competitive and reliable cross-border supply chains like we have in steel and aluminum comes at a great cost to both countries," Candace Laing, president of the chamber, said in a statement. Canada's United Steelworkers union called the move a direct attack on Canadian industries and workers. The European Commission said Saturday that Europe was prepared to retaliate. "This decision adds further uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic," a European Commission spokesperson said. "The EU is prepared to impose countermeasures, including in response to the latest US tariff increase." Australia's center-left government also condemned the tariff increase, with Trade Minister Don Farrell calling it "unjustified and not the act of a friend." Trump spoke at US Steel's Mon Valley Works, a steel plant that symbolizes both the one-time strength and the decline of US manufacturing power as the Rust Belt's steel plants and factories lost business to international rivals. Closely contested Pennsylvania is also a major prize in presidential elections. The US is the world's largest steel importer, excluding the European Union, with a total of 26.2 million tons of imported steel in 2024, according to the Department of Commerce. As a result, the new tariffs will likely increase steel prices across the board, hitting industry and consumers alike. Steel and aluminum tariffs were among the earliest put into effect by Trump when he returned to office in January. The tariffs of 25 percent on most steel and aluminum imported to the US went into effect in March, and he had briefly threatened a 50 percent levy on Canadian steel but ultimately backed off. Under the so-called Section 232 national security authority, the import taxes include both raw metals and derivative products as diverse as stainless steel sinks, gas ranges, air conditioner evaporator coils, horseshoes, aluminum frying pans and steel door hinges. The 2024 import value for the 289 product categories came to $147.3 billion with nearly two-thirds aluminum and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data retrieved through the US International Trade Commission's Data Web system. By contrast, Trump's first two rounds of punitive tariffs on Chinese industrial goods in 2018 during his first term totaled $50 billion in annual import value.
