The death of the leader of “Hamas“ Yahya Sinuar, considered the architect of the October 7 attacks on Israel, opens a “new opportunity” for a truce in the Palestinian territory, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell said today, quoted by BTA.
„After the death of Yahya Sinwar, a new perspective opens and we must seize it to achieve a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in Gaza and work for a political solution,” Borel, who participated, told journalists in the meeting of the defense ministers of the G-7 countries in Naples. “It should be an opportunity to reach an agreement to cease fire and release the hostages. And it will open the door for more humanitarian aid, he added.
Yesterday on the social network “X“ Borel called the death of Yahya Sinuar “a turning point for the Middle East”. “The hostages must be released and the war in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon must end,” he wrote. Several world leaders expressed hope that Yahya Sinuar's death would pave the way for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. US President Joe Biden saw in it an opportunity to “pave the way for peace” in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the death of the leader of “Hamas” has been one of the goals of the Israeli government since October 7, but it “does not mean the end of the war in Gaza, but the beginning of the end”. At the same time, Borel today proposed to strengthen the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which cannot currently intervene between “Hezbollah” and Israel and which accuses the Israeli army of deliberately shelling its positions.
„They cannot act alone; obviously their role is limited. We could envisage an expansion of that role, but that would require a decision by the UN Security Council,”, Borrell said. He called for the implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israel and “Hezbollah” in 2006 and which provides for the deployment of only peacekeeping forces and the Lebanese army in the southern part of Lebanon bordering Israel.