As the war into its eleventh month, Israel vows to remove the new leader of Hamas.

As the Gaza war approaches its eleventh month, tensions in the region are threatening to explode, and Israel has pledged to remove new Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, the claimed mastermind of the October 7 attack.

As Israel braced itself for possible Iranian retaliation after the death of his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, last week in Tehran, Sinwar was named leader of the Palestinian militant group.

Israel is “determined” to protect itself, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made this statement on Wednesday at a military base.

He informed the new recruits, “We are ready on the offensive and defensive ends.”

Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the head of the army, promised to “find him (Sinwar), attack him” and compel Hamas to find a replacement.

Since the bloodiest attack in Israel’s history on October 7, Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, has vanished from sight.

AFP was told by a top Hamas official The organization “continues its path of resistance” as a result of Sinwar’s appointment.

Compared to Haniyeh, who resided in Qatar, analysts think Sinwar has been closer to Tehran and less willing to accept a truce in Gaza.

According to Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, “if a ceasefire deal seemed unlikely upon Haniyeh’s death, it is even less likely under Sinwar.” She also stated that Hamas will “only lean further into its hardline militant strategy.”

According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sinwar “has been and remains the primary decider” and must assist in achieving a ceasefire.

Residents of Gaza and Israel were uneasy about Sinwar’s nomination.

Gazan refugee Mohammed al-Sharif told AFP, “He is a fighter.” How will the talks proceed?

Manager of a logistics company in Tel Aviv, Hanan, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that Hamas “did not see fit to look for someone less militant, someone with a less murderous approach” in light of Sinwar’s appointment.

Hezbollah promises an answer.

Hezbollah, the ally of Hamas located in Lebanon, has also vowed to exact revenge for Haniyeh’s and its own military chief Fuad Shukr’s deaths in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared on Tuesday that his organization would respond “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed factions in the area during a televised speech to commemorate one week since Shukr’s death.

The US has pushed Israel and Iran to prevent a worsening of the situation, sending additional aircraft and warships to the area.

This week, President Joe Biden spoke with leaders in the region, and Blinken informed reporters that both Israel and Iran had received the message of moderation “directly.”

After conveying the similar advice to his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian earlier in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron advised Netanyahu on Wednesday to “avoid a cycle of reprisals,” according to the French presidency.

In a different phone conversation, Pezeshkian advised Macron that if the West was to avert conflict, it “should immediately stop selling arms and supporting” Israel, according to his office.

Israel has acknowledged that it carried out the attack on Shukr in Beirut but has not commented on Haniyeh’s death in Iran.

– Cancelled flights

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in almost constant cross-border gunfire during the Gaza conflict.

According to a Lebanese security source, an Israeli strike near Jouaiyya near the border on Wednesday claimed the lives of a civilian and a Hezbollah militant. An local Hamas commander has been eliminated, according to the Israeli military.

Subsequently, the Israeli military announced that its aircraft had destroyed a launcher on Wednesday night that Hezbollah had earlier in the evening used to launch drones toward the Golan Heights.

Due to security concerns, many airlines have canceled or restricted their flights to Lebanon during the day. Meanwhile, Egypt reported that Iran had issued a warning to civilian airlines not to fly across its airspace as it would be carrying out military drills that night.

The UN did not relocate its employees; instead, it announced that it was “temporarily” lowering the number of UN family members residing in Lebanon.

Terrorists sponsored by Iran are already present in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, which was started by the Palestinian organization’s historic attack on Israel on October 7.

1,198 persons, primarily civilians, lost their lives as a result of the Hamas onslaught, according to an AFP count based on Israeli government statistics.

251 hostages were taken by Palestinian terrorists; 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom the Israeli military claims are dead.

At least 39,677 individuals have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory military operation in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave. Details regarding the fatalities of civilians and militants are not provided.

Early on Thursday, the Israeli army said that top Hamas member Nael Sakhl had been killed in a strike in Gaza late last month. According to the army, Sakhl was responsible for “directing terror activities” in the occupied West Bank.

Nearly all 2.4 million people in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes because to the fighting, and there is a severe food shortage.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, came under heavy fire on Wednesday from some friends for implying that starving the besieged area “might be justified.”

At a meeting earlier this week, he declared, “No one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”

Smotrich’s comments, according to the EU, demonstrated “contempt for international law and for basic principles of humanity.”

The remarks caused France to express its “deep dismay,” and David Lammy, the foreign minister of the United Kingdom, urged “the wider Israeli government to retract and condemn them.”