Weekly Briefing: Sinwar’s death will not end Israel’s genocide in Gaza

This week brought the extraordinary news that Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in Gaza and the head of Hamas’s politburo, was killed in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood. For months, the Israeli government claimed Sinwar was hiding in tunnels, using Israeli captives held since the October 7 attacks as human shields. In fact, he died above ground, in full military gear, operating with a handful of other fighters in close proximity to Israeli troops. Israel said Sinwar was a coward, but there he is, on video, fighting right up to his very literal end.

At the same time as Sinwar’s death played out in Rafah, Israel continued to besiege Jabalia in the north. The reports coming out of that area detail rank barbarism. Hospitals have essentially stopped functioning altogether. Palestinians are being brutally killed and forced out of what’s left of their homes. It appears that the so-called “General’s Plan” is being carried out to empty north Gaza of all its inhabitants. Israeli leaders indicated after Sinwar’s death was confirmed that the fighting would continue and even escalate.

It feels as though there are few words left to describe what is happening and beg for it to stop. Biden and Harris hold all those cards, but they are refusing to play them, even as the international community urges a negotiated ceasefire.

If you haven’t had time to follow our coverage this week, take a look at the stories below for a quick catch-up.

In case you missed it

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🇵🇸 Qassam Muaddi reports on the killing of Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in a battle with Israeli soldiers on the frontline in Rafah.

🇦🇺 Noam Peleg updates us on the Zionist campaign to shut down pro-Palestine activism and protest on Australian university campuses, which culminated recently in the Australian Senate with calls to investigate universities for antisemitism.

🇺🇸 Mitchell Plitnick says the U.S. government is not putting pressure on Israel to end its expanding war on Gaza, despite public pronouncements: “Those who have raised such hopes have apparently not been paying attention for the past year.”

🚫 Michael Arria spoke to Samidoun’s Europe Coordinator, Mohammed Khatib after the group was slapped with sanctions by the United States and Canada listed it as a “terrorist entity.”

🌩️ Robert Clines says the devastation from Hurricane Helene and Israel’s escalation in the Middle East may not seem connected but they are linked through the United States’s commitment to mass militarization and refusal to work toward a just global future.

🇱🇧 Layla Yammine reports on how Israel is exploiting Lebanese sectarian rifts in its assault on Beirut and southern Lebanon. “By exacerbating the sectarian tensions that have long plagued Lebanon, Israel aims to weaken both the resistance and the broader society in service of the larger goal of invasion and occupation.”

🔥 Qassam Muaddi reported on eyewitness accounts from the brutal Israeli siege on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. “Bombings begin with very heavy fire belts. Their sound is horrifying. Everything shakes and children put their fingers in their ears and scream.”

🇨🇦 Arfa Rana resigned from Canada’s largest broadcasting corporation over its complicity in Israel’s genocide. “By the time I resigned, I had become a shell of myself. The constant tug-of-war between my conscience and CBC’s Language guide was an uphill battle that I could no longer fight.”

📖 James North says pro-Israel critics are panicking at the success of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new book, “The Message,” and they have honed in on an argument to discredit him that doesn’t hold up to the slightest scrutiny.

🏛️ Michael Arria interviewed Radhika Sainath, senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal about the “Mcarthyite environment” students are finding as they return to school this fall across the United States.

🪖 Qassam Muaddi explains the “Generals’ Plan” for the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza. “The idea is to drain northern Gaza of its population and thus isolate Hamas from its social base, forcing it to capitulate or die.”