From: Firstpost October 19, 2024
Defiant martyr or defeated terrorist?

Israeli footage of Yahya Sinwar's last moments sparks debate

Sinwar's supporters see it as proof that he died fighting, refusing to surrender.
Died as he vowed to, on the battlefield, portraying him as a heroic figure.

“By broadcasting the last minutes of Yahya Sinwar’s life, the occupation made his life longer than the lives of his killers,” wrote Egyptian journalist Osama Gaweesh on social media.

Prominent Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa argued that Israel’s attempt to demoralise Palestinians had backfired. “In reality, the footage immortalizes Sinwar and galvanizes all of us to have courage and resolve until the last moment,” she wrote on X.

further on the folly of the colonizer's mentality:
1. They thought that publishing footage of Sinwar's last moments would demoralize us, make us feel defeat.
2. In reality, the footage immortalizes Sinwar and galvanizes all of us to have courage and resolve until the last moment.
3. The footage showed the epic heroism and defiance of an unbroken man, even after they broke his body.
4. It showed a leader fighting alongside his men on the front lines against Zionist barbarism.

It showed the world what indigenous resistance looks like—a native son, mulatham in a kufiyyeh, with a severed arm and busted leg, fighting one armed until his final breath.

No words can capture the pride and renewed resolve that emerges from our heartbreak to resist them until their malignant ideology is gone from this earth.

In Gaza, reactions were more mixed:
Some mourned his death, while others hoped it could bring an end to the war that began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Yet, in Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace, mourners gathered in a bombed-out mosque to recite funeral prayers for him, even though Israel has retained his body.

For many, his death on the battlefield, rather than hidden in a tunnel (as Israel alleged he had been for months), elevated him to the status of a martyr.