Hamas vows to continue fight and says conditions for ceasefire unchanged

Hamas acknowledged the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar, but vowed yesterday to keep fighting, in the face of international calls for an immediate ceasefire.

- William Christou, Bethan McKernan, Julian Borger

“We are continuing Hamas's path,” Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar's deputy, said from exile in Qatar, adding that the killed leader's conditions for a ceasefire would not be compromised.

Those conditions included a cessation of Israeli military operations in Gaza, the complete withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from the occupied coastal strip, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

He insisted that Hamas would emerge stronger than ever despite the death of its leader, but most experts predict that Sinwar's killing was a significant blow to the movement, at least in the short term.

Benjamin Netanyahu showed no sign that he would now accept conditions he had rejected while Sinwar was alive. The Israeli prime minister instead emphasised how far the fugitive leader's killing had weakened his organisation, calling it an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.

Sinwar was killed after an Israeli patrol came across him and two of his bodyguards by chance on Wednesday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Netanyahu said Sinwar's death could spell the “beginning of the end” of the war, now entering its second year, and he also vowed that Israel would keep fighting to achieve its war aims, in particular the freedom of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Hayya warned the hostages “will not return … unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops”.