Mixed feelings for Palestinian in Gaza over Yahya Sinwar's death, yet all agree Israel's war is not over

While Palestinians in the Gaza Strip reacted in mixed ways to the news that Hamas political bureau chief Yahya Sinwar was killed in an armed confrontation with the Israeli army in Rafah, everyone in the war-torn besieged coastal enclave seems to agree that Israel will not stop its genocidal war. 

Saleh Al-Khalidi, a Palestinian man from al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, mourned Sinwar and described the slain Hamas chief as "a Palestinian militant hero who was able to confront Israel until the last day of his life."

"If Israel thinks that it has ended Hamas and the Palestinian resistance by killing Sinwar, it is delusional... Every Palestinian leader who dies, there are dozens of other leaders who will carry the banner of resistance against the occupation, as long as it remains in our land," he told The New Arab.

"The people no longer have anything to lose, everyone is now in the circle of targeting, and we will not accept that Israel implements its colonial and displacement plans," he added.

Sami Abdullah, a Gaza-based Palestinian man, feels differently than Al-Khalidi about Sinwar's death. He expressed a sense of joy over Sinwar's death.

"I am not against Hamas, but I am against Sinwar... especially since he did not think about the people or the consequences that would befall us... He has taken us back to the era of the Nakba in 1948," he remarked bitterly to TNA.

"We are currently lost and confused and do not know what our fate is, whether we will remain alive or not," he added.

But despite having differing feelings over Sinwar, his legacy and his death, Abdullah does agree with Al-Khalidi on what will come next. He, too, does not expect that killing Sinwar will end Israel's war on Gaza.

"On the contrary, Israel will insist on continuing its plan to end the Palestinian presence in Gaza, and this is clear from the Israeli army's continued military operations in the Gaza Strip and in Jabalia, particularly," he said.

Ahmed Al-Ra'i, a Palestinian man from the city of Khan Younis, echoed a similar sentiment. "Netanyahu made it clear that he will not end the war on Gaza, which means that the Israeli army will continue its crimes against the Palestinian people and will destroy everything that remains of the Palestinian presence," Al-Ra'i said to TNA.

"I believe that the negotiations to reach a deal will not be affected [by Sinwar's death], but they will not progress quickly in his absence," Samer al-Antbatawi, a Palestinian political expert based in Nablus, told TNA

"Israel believes that it has achieved a great accomplishment in assassinating him. Still, Hamas knows that its leaders are always exposed to assassination. It knows its way and organises its structure," he said.

Indeed, Hamas vowed on Friday it would not release the hostages it had seized during its October 7 attack on Israel until the war on Gaza ends, as it mourned the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar.

"We mourn the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim," Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in a recorded video statement.

The hostages "will not return... unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from it, and our heroic prisoners are released from the occupation's prisons," he added.

Hamas's confirmation of the death of Sinwar came a day after Israel had announced he was killed.