Moments after Israel announced the death of the head of Hamas, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack on Israel, the… The Israeli army has released drone images with the last moments of Yahya Sinwar. Covered in dust and with his arm amputated, Sinwar is seen throwing a stick at the drone – which several social media users have described as a lasting image of his final act of defiance against Israel.

Photos also emerged showing the body of a man resembling Sinwar with a head wound, wearing a military-style vest, half-buried in the rubble of a destroyed building. Although Israel had hoped to portray the video as a fitting end for a terrorist, a year after Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel, the video appeared to inspire several Gaza residents and Gaza supporters.

“Israel made the mistake of publishing images of Yahya Sinwar’s last moments. Wearing a kufiyyeh and seriously injured, he threw a stick at the drone filming him – a final act of defiance against the Zionist occupation. After his death he became a legend. journalist and filmmaker Dan Cohen tweeted.

In fact, the video can be seen Sinwar sits in a chair in a bombed building refuted the Israeli narrative that the Hamas chief hid in tunnels and used human shields.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on several occasions that 61-year-old Sinwar spent much of his time hiding in tunnels in the Gaza Strip, along with a group of bodyguards and a “human shield” of hostages brought from Israel.

When Sinwar was found by an Israeli patrol team during a chance encounter, his security detail was small and no hostages were found. When Sinwar escaped into a building, the Israeli team located him with a drone before firing a grenade at it.

“Images published by the Hebrew media turned martyr Yahya Sinwar into an eternal legend… He was tortured like a real resistance fighter and fought to the end,” said an X user. Another said it captured Sinwar’s fierce spirit and dedication to his cause.

Despite eliminating its most wanted countries, Israel knows it can hardly breathe easy. “Today evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task ahead is not yet completed,” Netanyahu said as he announced Sinwar’s killing.

Since the 1990s, Israel has ousted every leader of Hamas. But there has always been a successor, and the video released by Israel may serve to unite the group and energize Sinwar’s followers, rather than herald its collapse.

Among the contenders are Mahmoud al-Zahar, a founder and senior member of Hamas, and Yahya’s brother Mohammed Sinwar.

We must not forget that Hamas still has Israeli hostages and that breaking the hierarchical structure of the army will not be easy.

Even Hezbollah showed that despite the fact that Israel had assassinated its chief Hassan Nasrallah and several of its top commanders, the organization did not collapse. The Iran-backed group is currently led by Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Kassem.

“This is because the command is divided into smaller units that continue to function, and also because of the strong ideological and religious passion that drives organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,” a security expert told The Jerusalem Post.