Hours after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces, Iran remembered Sinwar as a martyr whose vision for a liberated Palestine would be carried forward.
Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which prompted the ongoing war between the Jewish state and terror group in the Gaza Strip, was killed Thursday by Israeli forces in Rafah.
“He told you he was a lion, but in reality, he was hiding in a dark den, and he was killed when he fled in a panic from our soldiers,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised message announcing Sinwar’s death.
In a statement, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations compared Sinwar’s demise to the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was captured by U.S. forces in 2003 and subsequently convicted of crimes against humanity.
Yahya Sinwar, terrorist leader, speaks at a podium while at a rally. Israel said Thursday Sinwar was killed by its forces in Gaza. (Mohammed Talatene/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed. Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed,” the statement said.
“However, when Muslims look up to Martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield — in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy — the spirit of resistance will be strengthened,” the mission said. “He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forward his path toward the liberation of Palestine. As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.”
ISRAEL’S HUNT FOR HAMAS TERROR LEADER YAHYA SINWAR: ‘DEAD MAN WALKING’
A demonstrator holds a sign about the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a protest calling for a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas Thursday, Oct. 17, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
Hamas is considered a proxy of Iran, similar to Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, and other terrorist groups with American blood on their hands. Both groups receive funding and training from Tehran.
Israel has killed top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, which began launching airstrikes targeting Israel’s north more than a year ago in solidarity with Hamas.
Israel vowed to kill Sinwar at the start of its military campaign against Hamas. Before Sinwar was elevated to the top leader of the group, his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivers a speech during a program held after the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack and subsequent Iranian strikes at the Imam Khomeini Husseiniyah in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 2, 2024. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
In response, Iran launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel. The Jewish state has vowed to respond. For more than four decades, the Iranian regime has meticulously constructed a “Ring of Fire” around Israel, employing various terror groups to extend its influence across the Middle East.
Amnon Sofrin, former head of the Intelligence Directorate at Mossad, told Fox News Digital, “In central Tehran, there is a huge clock that was set up in 2015, showing how much time is left for Israel, indicating that, by 2040, Israel should no longer exist. They have been preparing for this moment. Some of the Iran-backed militias conducted reconnaissance with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and claimed they would assist once the [Israel Defense Forces] IDF entered Lebanon.
“However,” Sofrin added, “we are already inside Lebanon, and no pro-Iranian militia has yet provided help. Iran isn’t giving the order to its other proxies in the region to join the ground war — at least not yet.”
On Thursday, Netanyahu vowed to bring an end to “the reign of terror that the Iranian regime has imposed on its own people and on the peoples of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.”
Hezbollah Radwan terrorists training in Southern Lebanon close to the Israeli border. (AP/Hassan Ammar)
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Earlier this month, drones loaded with explosives were launched by pro-Iranian militias from Iraq against an Israeli military base in the Golan Heights, killing two Israeli soldiers and injuring 24.
Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.