SINWAR IS DEAD, BUT IRAN'S IRGC IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO ISRAEL

The bad news for a jubilant Israel is that the latest generation of IRGC leaders are more radical than their predecessors, happy to suppress anti-regime protests in the country and eager to continue support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Assad in Syria.

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There was much rejoicing in Israel on Thursday when news broke of the death of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who conceived and planned the atrocities against innocent Israelis more than a year ago, the worst in Israel's history.

Some commentators are calling it Israel's "we got him" moment, echoing Barack Obama's famous announcement of the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Now, leaders of the free world are hoping that this is the moment that marks the beginning of the end of the horrors of the past year in Gaza and peace in the region. Sinwar was never a man likely to compromise and even by Hamas standards he was an extremist.

He not only oversaw the rebuilding of Hamas's military wing after several setbacks, but instigated a purge against anyone suspected of collaboration with the enemy-Israel. Stories abound of Sinwar's brutality, at one point forcing a Hamas fighter to bury his own brother alive. It's no wonder that he earned the nickname "the butcher of Khan Younis".

Sinwar's death is important because he wanted to trigger a broader regional and religious war that would lead to Israel's "collapse". A year on, however, while Sinwar hid in the maze of tunnels, the Gazans above bore the brunt of Israel's response, something Sinwar reportedly dismissed as "necessary sacrifices". Unquestionably, the current momentum is now on Israel's side, but the risk ahead for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is getting trapped into something bigger, this time directly involving Iran's powerful IRGC under a new generation of radical leaders.