Global News Podcast - Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

The Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was believed to have been a key figure behind the 7th of October attacks last year in Israel. Also: Australian territory to resume jailing 10-year-olds.

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. This week on Witness History, in 1970, Gary Gygax was fired. And that event, believe it or not, changed the gaming industry forever. He went on to create Dungeons & Dragons. In the 50 years since its release, the tabletop roleplay game has generated billions of dollars in sales and now boasts more than 50 million players worldwide. Search and subscribe to Witness History wherever you get your BBC podcast.

This is the Global News podcast on the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Friday the 18th of October these are our main stories. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that evil has been delivered a blow after it was confirmed that his country's forces had killed the leader of Hamas, Yachiyah Sinwar, in southern Gaza. President Biden said Yachiyah Sinwar's death was a good day for Israel, for the US and for the world. But Stret, it also presented an opportunity to end the war. an opportunity to end the war. Senators in Kenya have ousted the Vice President, Righati Gadkadwa, in a historic impeachment vote. Also in this podcast, in the footsteps of Indiana Jones.

It was an absolutely classic case of, you know, stones blocking an entrance, and then we were able to crawl down into the tomb. This discovery of the bodies was made. The real-life archaeologist revealing the secrets of the ancient city of Petra. It was DNA and dental analysis which confirmed the news already circulating in Israel and abroad. The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwa, is dead. He was killed by Israeli soldiers during a raid on Wednesday in the south of the Gaza Strip. Details emerged a day later. Sinwar was widely believed to have been the architect of the attacks on Israel of October the 7th last year,

in which more than a thousand people were killed and over 200 kidnapped. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States and many 200 kidnapped. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and many other governments. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced the killing on Israeli television and had this to say to the people of Gaza and the wider region. His words are spoken by an interpreter. This is a milestone in taking down the evil rule of Hamas.

And let me say very clearly once again, Hamas will no longer rule in Gaza. This is the beginning of the day after Hamas. This is an opportunity for you, residents of Gaza, to finally liberate yourself from his tyranny. To Hamas terrorists, let me say this. Your leaders are running away, and they will be taken down. I'm calling upon anyone holding our hostages.

If you take down your weapons and return our hostages, we will allow you to come out and live. But at the same time, let me also say, if you hurt our hostages, you will be taken down. We will settle the score with you. Returning our hostages is an opportunity to achieve all of our goals, and it will make the end of the war nearer. The peoples of this region, let me say in Gaza, in Beirut or across the region, the darkness is making way for light which is rising. Deff, Hanir, Sinwa, Nasrallah, Mokhsen, Akhil and many of their partners are no longer.

A short time later, an IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, gave details of the final moments of the operation against Yachach Sinwa in Gaza. He ran away and hid in a little cave there. And you can see this in the film. He was wounded in his hand and you could see that he was masked. And he's throwing a little bit of wood against the drone. We identified him as a terrorist and we fought and we shot at him and we found him with a revolver and 40,000 Israeli shekels. He was running away and we killed him. running away and we killed him. As we record this podcast there's been no confirmation so far from Hamas but analysts say this would be the biggest blow yet to the group. David Petraeus is the former

head of the American CIA. It's hard to overstate how important this is. This is bigger than Osama bin Laden who is massively symbolic. He was at at the end of the day, the complete leader of Hamas, especially after the political leader was killed in the guesthouse in Tehran some months back, but also hugely operational. So this is a major achievement. Yachaf Sinwar was widely reported to have been hiding in the group's network of tunnels in Gaza, surrounded by hostages to deter an Israeli strike.

I spoke to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Wera Davis. How significant is the death of Yaya Sinwa? It is very significant of course because Sinwa had been the number one target for Israel ever since October the 7th last year because of his role in organising and directing those attacks in which 1200 people were killed and 240 people were taken hostage. Never since that he's had a target on his back. It was presumed he was living in tunnels underneath Gaza surrounded by hostages but the way it apparently has been relayed on Israeli television last night after an interview with

a soldier involved in the operation was that soldiers in Rafah in southern Gaza saw suspicious activity in a house and decided to engage people in that house. It was a very fierce firefight according to the soldier in which three people who they described as Hamas terrorists were killed and it was only subsequently that somebody noticed that one of the bodies that you've described seemed to resemble very strongly that of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. And what we've heard over the last few hours is the body removed, taken to Israel for forensic examination, dental records and fingerprints. And tonight, a various succession of Israeli ministers, including the Prime Minister,

have confirmed what we all now know, that Yaya Sinwa, the man who organised the 7th of October attacks the ultimate leader of of Hamas is now dead. Now Hamas is clearly not just Yaya Sinwa, but how significant a blow for the organisation is this? It's a huge blow, but you're right, the fighting goes on and both Netanyahu and Hamas probably don't see this as a moment when the war is going to end. The Israelis have been pounding parts of northern Gaza earlier today, they say they've killed several Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. But that attack on a school in northern Gaza, which was also sheltering dozens of displaced families, killed several civilians, according to a doctor in a nearby hospital. So the fighting goes on. Civilians

are still being killed, more than 42,000 civilians killed, according to the Hamas run health ministry and aid agencies who work in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu clearly doesn't feel that he can take the foot off the pedal yet. He doesn't want any Hamas fighting capability left and only then will he declare victory in an end to the war in Gaza. Wera Davis in Jerusalem. Yaya Sinwa had only recently been chosen as overall leader of Hamas but had served as the group's leader in Gaza for more than nine years. He'd been associated with Hamas since it was founded in the 1980s. Rushdie Abu Alouf is the BBC's Gaza correspondent

who's now working from Turkey. I met Yahya Senwa about four times in the past ten years or so when he was released from the Israeli prison. He's somebody who's very sharp. He's in charge of everything in Hamas. Palestinians and especially those who work for Hamas used to use a term called Sanwara, which is make everything belong to Sanwara. He was someone who appointed the head of the Hamas government committee in Gaza. He's the one who used to appoint all of the key players within the military wing in the movement. So he was the one man show that controlled everything within the movement. So I believe it's a very painful loss for

Hamas. Maybe the killing of Yahya Sunwar wouldn't destroy Hamas, but it is a big blow. And it's not easy for them to find someone to replace him very quickly because he was controlling everything inside Gaza. He was not somebody who was a good friend of the Hamas leadership outside. And we believe that even he didn't tell the Hamas leaders outside about the nature of the 7th of October attack. So the people in Gaza were expressing their feeling. Very few people who have access to the Internet, some of them, they were saying that maybe

this is the moment where Israel will declare victory and end the war. For the people, they don't care how this war will end. They want the war to end. Some of the Palestinians in Gaza and maybe outside who are against Hamas, they went even more far and they were like celebrating the death of Yahya Senuar. One person, he wrote on his Facebook, I can't feel sorry about him. He's the one who just ordered this attack.

And all of the suffering that we live throughout this series because of him, that's not reflect all of the views in Gaza. We have seen many people express their grief and sadness for the laws of Yahya Sunwar. Some of them call him a fighter. Some of them call him that he was killed while holding his gun and wearing the traditional Palestinian kufiya. He wasn't hiding in a tunnel like what the Israelis are said. So, mixed feeling among the Palestinians. Rushdie Abbe-Oluf, a group representing families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas has welcomed Yahyaf's death and said they hoped it would help secure the release of captives still in Gaza. President Biden has said the death was a good day

for Israel, for the US and for the world, but stressed it also presented an opportunity to end the war and bring the hostages home. The US Vice President, Kamala Harris, also had this to say. Israel has a right to defend itself and the threat Hamas poses to Israel must be eliminated. Today there is clear progress toward that goal. Hamas is decimated and its leadership is eliminated. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, also called for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza and damned Tsinois as the main person responsible for the attacks of October 7. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Stephen Brisley, who's in Wales here in the UK. His sister and her

daughters were killed in their home in Israel on the 7th of October. His brother-in-law is still being held hostage by Hamas. My sister and my 13 and 16 year old nieces were murdered in their home on Kibbutz Berry and my sister's husband Eli Shar, was taken hostage to Gaza. We obviously hope that he remains alive in captivity, but we've not had any news about him to know one way or the other. So obviously every passing day just continues the nightmare for us. Well, it must have been a dreadful year every day, must have been very stressful for you and your family and I'm so sorry for your loss. What would you like Mr Netanyahu's government to do now?

Well, I think this is a window of opportunity that has presented itself, whether by luck or judgment. It's very clear now that it's time to bring the hostages home. It's time to bring my brother-in-law Ellie and all the other hostages back. We need all stakeholders, all governments, to make a clear statement to Hamas that they must immediately and unconditionally release the hostages. It's over for them. We need to take this opportunity to end the war on both sides, to make sure that there is no more loss of life. Stephen Brizley, whose brother-in-law is still being held hostage by Hamas. Let's move on to some other news now.

Senators in Kenya have voted to remove the deputy president, Rigata Keshagwa, from office over accusations that include corruption and undermining the government. Anne Soy reports from Nairobi. This is the first time in Kenya's history that a deputy president has been impeached. Mr Rigatiga Shaguwa was scheduled to defend himself earlier but his lawyer informed the house that he is admitted in hospital. The Senate rejected a proposal to adjourn the proceedings by two days and the trial continued without him. The decision bars him from ever holding public office and denies him his exit benefits. Mr Dasagwa faced 11

charges including corruption, undermining the president and inciting ethnic divisions, all of which he denied. And soy in Kenya. Experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have accused the two ethnic divisions, all of which he denied. And soy in Kenya. Experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have accused the two sides in Sudan's civil war of using starvation tactics against 25 million civilians, or about half the country's entire population. The fighting has been going on since April of last year.

Our Africa regional editor, Will Ross, reports. The UN experts said the rapid support forces in the Sudanese army must immediately stop obstructing the delivery of aid. They said both sides, along with their foreign supporters, were responsible for the deliberate use of starvation, a war crime. At the beginning of August, a famine was declared in Darfur's Zamzam camp, where 400,000 displaced civilians live. Later that month US-brokered peace talks led to commitments from the warring sides to allow aid into Darfur. But the promise was broken and humanitarian workers recently stopped feeding thousands of malnourished children in the camp.

Will Ross The dominant presence of social media in the lives of teenagers leaves many parents with one looming question. Is it safe? Its role in poor mental health and criminal activity has been well documented. But now Instagram has introduced new features to protect young people from one of the big risks of the platform. Sextortion. This from the BBC's senior technology reporter Chris Balance. Let's talk about sextortion. That's when someone threatens to expose a sexual image or video to get you to do something like send money.

An educational video that Instagram is posting directly into teenagers feeds in the UK, US, Canada and Australia warning about sextortion. The crime is particularly cruel. In the US, nearly 30 teenagers have taken their own lives as a result of being blackmailed. The international criminal groups behind these scams target victims on social media. Now Instagram is rolling out a range of new features to disrupt sextortion, including making it harder for the blackmailers to contact under-18s, rolling out tools to detect automatically and blur nude images in direct messages more widely, and new educational campaigns.

Here's how to take control of the situation if you need help. Stop responding and tell someone you trust. Report the account. Instagram's move follows the UK and US government's recent joint message to tech firms to go further, faster to protect children. Wayne May of Scam Survivors said

that while Instagram's latest action against sextortion was welcome, others needed to follow suit. I think it's definitely a good start, but I think not just matter, but every site should be doing more, should be making more announcements about how sex abortion works. But if firms don't do more, then calls in many countries for tougher action against the online platforms will only get louder.

Chris Balance. Still to come. Moldovan police said that since June, groups of up to 20 people had been travelling to Russia to train in civil unrest, with paramilitary instructors teaching techniques such as seizing weapons and even taking over state-run buildings. A police investigation in Moldova as it prepares for presidential elections on Sunday and a referendum on whether to join the European Union. This week on Witness History, in 1970, Gary Gygax was fired. And that event, believe it or not, changed the gaming industry forever. He went on to create Dungeons and Dragons. In the 50 years since its release, the tabletop

roleplay game has generated billions of dollars in sales and now boasts more than 50 million players worldwide. Search and subscribe to Witness History wherever you get your BBC podcasts. wherever you get your BBC podcast. Bureaucratic, complacent and static. That is the damning assessment of America's Secret Service by an independent panel into security failures during July's assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The report recommends a complete overhaul of the US Secret Service leadership. I heard more from Gordon Carrera,

our correspondent in Washington. It's a very scathing report when it comes to what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania. It really focuses on failures in a series of areas. Most prominently, the failure to secure the building, which had a line of sight of where Donald Trump was speaking, a set of buildings about 130 yards away from which a gunman then took that series of shots. So a very specific criticism of that, but then building on that are a series of criticisms

about the training of the officers who'd been deployed to the scene, for instance the counter drone technology, the person using it had barely used it just a couple of times before, the relative lack of experience of the person in charge of protecting that site and the whole event, and then building upwards to really the whole culture and prioritisation within the Secret Service. So a pretty damning report overall, yes. And Gordon, it recommends a complete overhaul of the Secret Service. Do we know what that would entail?

Well, it's interesting because there's a series of very specific reforms it calls for, but also really, I think, a cultural change at the Secret Service saying it's not just about money, which is what the Secret Service have been saying, that they're simply short of resources, but it's about leadership, that the leadership needs to come from outside,

not from within, including at the director level. Also prioritisation. One of the oddities really of the Secret Service is that it has other functions as well as protecting people like presidents. For instance, it investigates aspects of financial crime and fraud. And I think the panel suggests that actually it really needs to prioritise and focus on protecting individuals rather than some of these other functions as well. Now the Secret Service was heavily criticised in the 1960s after JFK and his brother Robert Kennedy were assassinated and then after the attempted assassination of Reagan in the 80s. Is it fair to say that the reputation of the Secret Service is at its lowest ebb now?

I think it is at a very low ebb in Washington. I think people are understanding that it's got some serious problems and that it's not just about this one event, although I think that is emblematic of some of those other problems, and that it does require deeper reform and that it's not just about money, which the Secret Service has been saying for some time. Now the Secret Service itself has responded to this report saying that it's already made changes to implement some reforms and prioritise its protection but I still think there's going to be a sense that more needs to be done and it is still very much in focus as being an area which has got a problem and which needs fundamental change.

Gordon Carrera in Washington. Police in Moldova say pro-Kremlin supporters have taken hundreds of Moldovan citizens to Russia in recent months to train them in staging riots and civil unrest. The police investigation comes as Moldova prepares for presidential elections on Sunday and the referendum on whether to join the EU. Warren Bull reports. At a news conference, Moldovan police said that since June, groups of up to 20 people had been travelling to Russia to train in civil unrest, with paramilitary instructors teaching techniques such as seizing weapons and even taking over state-run buildings. Investigators say they believe the camps are organised by a group linked to the fugitive pro-Kremlin businessman, Ilan Shor.

The Moldovan government accuses him of offering bribes to persuade people to vote no in Sunday's referendum on EU membership and back a rival to the pro-Europe president, Maia Sandu. Warren Bull. Italians who want to travel abroad to have children using a surrogate mother have been reacting to the news that they could end up in prison. The practice is illegal in many countries, including Italy, but now the Italian government has gone further, pushing a law through Parliament to make it punishable by a fine of up to a million euros, that's just over a million dollars, and two years in prison. The bill was driven through by the far-right Brothers of Italy party of the

Prime Minister, Giorgia Maloney, who was elected on a manifesto of what are broadly called traditional family values. She has described the move as protecting women against commodification. Domenica Spinelli is a senator from the Brothers of Italy Party. This law for us is very important because the real challenge is to protection the minor and to protection the women. For us, it's important to stop the procreative tourism because in Italy, the rendering uter is a crime, but it was not a crime for the Italian that went to another state and came back to Italy with children. Domenica Spinelli describing there what she called renting a uterus and procreative tourism. Most Italians who

travel often to the United States to use surrogates are heterosexual and either can't or choose not to carry their own child. But many are same-sex couples like Maurizio and Mauro who had twins, Luisa and Giorgio, via a surrogate in America. Here's their reaction to the new law. We are horrified because we hear a lot of lies. We as many intended parents and parents in Italy work hard to reach the dream of our family and to listen to lies and disinformation and fear mongering. It's terrible because it's a unique law in the world. No other country has a law that said that surrogacy is something similar to

war crimes or genocide and that people who are trying to pursue this road to have a family has to go to jail for two years and to pay a fine of one million euros. It creates a great stigma on our children because now they are children of a crime, a universal crime. I remember the government, when I was based in Rome, they would call it utero in affito, uterus for rent. That's how they present it. How does that make you feel? The shock. I am horrified by this kind of expression. First of all, I respect soul for the women because it's incredible that somebody can define them as a part of their body instead of thinking

that they are perfectly aware of what they are doing. Do you have friends who are planning to become parents and who now will not be able to do so. Yes, we have friends in the middle of this journey which are horrified, of course, because he's going to the States, he's expensive, people have to put away money for years to pursue their journey and they are all horrified. But they are all going on with their projects because he's a… Even if they risk criminal prosecution? fight, but they are all going on with their projects because... Even if they risk criminal prosecution? Yes, yes, because we have faced many hurdles to pursue this family from the other side of the ocean and we continue to create families. People are scared, of course, but they are

ready to fight. They are not willing to go to prison, but they are ready to fight. They are not willing to go to prison, but they are willing to fight. Maurizio and Mauro talking to the BBC's former Rome correspondent, Mark Lowen. Politicians in Australia's Northern Territory have passed a law lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 years old. Katie Watson has this report. The new government says it has a mandate to 10 years old. Ketty Watson has this report. The new government says it has a mandate to keep people safe. It won a landslide following campaigning that focused on security and crime. They say locking up children as young as 10 will allow authorities to intervene earlier

and help them turn their lives around. But doctors, lawyers, human rights groups and indigenous organisations have all voiced concerns saying that the law is inhumane and won't fix the inequalities in the region. The Northern Territory has the highest incarceration rate in Australia, while Aboriginal people make up about a quarter of the population, almost all of the children put in jail are First Nations people. Katie Watson, we return now to our top story. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

has applauded the killing of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops on Wednesday. The death of the architect of the October the 7th attacks was confirmed after DNA and dental analysis. Mr. Netanyahu said his killing would enable light to prevail over darkness across the Middle East. But he insisted that it did not spell the end of the war. Christian Fraser spoke to the BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen and

asked him for his thoughts on the future of Gaza in the wake of the killing of Yachiyah Sinwa. The Israelis from the very outset have made it very clear that their war aims are to destroy Hamas as a political and military organization and to get those hostages back. There are estimated, I think, to be 101 hostages in Gaza and perhaps the Israelis say half of them are dead. But while they are still there, the war definitely goes on. And I suppose it's a question of who Hamas come up with as a successor for Sinwa. His brother could be a possibility. You know, the thing about succession in Hamas is that since the 1990s, I believe I'm right in saying that every Hamas leader has been

assassinated by Israel and every time they find somebody else and the organization continues. Now of course because of the way that Gaza is in ruins, because of the way that the Israelis have been fighting there for actually over a year now, they're under immense pressure but they've been under immense pressure like that for months. So, you know, question, how directly did Sinwar actually give orders to the Hamas fighters who are still taking on the Israelis in Gaza? Or has this, as many people would say, it's no longer a question of an organized group. It's more a question of small groups of people popping out of holes in the ground and shooting at the Israelis and trying to hit them in a, if you like,

a kind of guerrilla counterinsurgency campaign. So I think my instinct is that until other factors change, until there's a ceasefire agreement and at the moment no negotiations at all are going on and until those hostages are freed then there will be no deal and the war will go on. Jeremy Bowen reporting. We're going to take you in a completely different direction now on the podcast. And that is the direction of Indiana Jones, the dramatic theme music there from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the epic Steven Spielberg movie, which followed the journey of an archaeologist whose mission is to save the Holy Grail. In some Christian traditions,

this is thought to be the holy chalice or vessel that Jesus used. This movie was filmed in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, known for its distinctive rose-coloured rock. Now a real group of archaeologists have made their own discovery of a dozen skeletons and their grave treasures in a tomb beneath Petra. Petra was the capital of the ancient civilization of the Nabataeans and it's hoped the discovery will yield important information about their culture. The archaeologists were alerted to the existence of the tomb by the geophysicist Richard Bates, who explains now the technique he used to locate the bodies. I use remote sensing tools really to look into the rock, to look into the ground and

see if there are things that you can't see from just walking over a ground surface or looking at a building. And the ground penetrating radar that we did identified a big void. The only way to really then prove that I was correct in my data was to get the permission to excavate. And we got that and the Jordanian team started uncovering an entrance to this void. And of course, it turns out the void is a tomb. It was an absolutely classic case of stones blocking an entrance and the stones when they were lifted out of there and then we were able to crawl down into the chamber, the tomb as we now know it. This discovery of the bodies was made.

I mean that must have been a remarkable moment, not least because presumably you didn't know if you had it right. The Atria physics is remote sensing. At the end of the day it's a bunch of numbers and you have to interpret them. You know the data seemed to imply that the void wasn't just a void, that it did have things in it. What was in there? The chamber is about two metres tall by about four metres by five metres and then the bodies are distributed between the walls. Twelve individuals, probably some children and adults and there are grave goods with the bodies.

Okay, now when you say grave goods, people have a picture of sort of gold chalices. What was in there? There's a lot of pottery, mainly, there has been a lot made of this one that looks like a chalice and of course the connotations from certain films, you know, people would like to jump onto that. Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. Yes, it's the neck of a jug, more than lightly, or a vessel of some form, that does give the appearance of a chalice. It's not a chalice at all.

It is treasure, isn't it, in terms of what it could yield about the Nabataeans? It is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what one should be able to, in the future, say about the kingdom, about the people, about society, when we really get to fully analyse everything that's in there. It's really exciting actually because what more could there be? Get back there and find out. Professor Richard Bates of St Andrews University in Scotland talking to Sarah Montague. And that's all from us for now.

But before I go, I just wanted to ask you a favour. We're recording a special edition of the podcast ahead of this year's UN climate change conference, which starts on November the 11th. I'll be hosting that programme with two of the BBC's top climate change experts. We want you to send us your questions for them right now, preferably as a voice note. Manuel Nunes from Panama has already sent us his question. He wants to know how wealthy nations are helping small islands at risk from rising sea levels. Great question. Please send yours to the usual address, globalpodcast atbbc.co.uk. This edition of the podcast was mixed by Hannah

Montgomery. The producer was Leah McSheffrey. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. This week on Witness History, in 1970, Gary Gygax was fired. And that event, believe it or not, changed the gaming industry forever. He went on to create Dungeons & Dragons. In the 50 years since its release, the tabletop role-play game has generated billions of dollars in sales and now boasts more than 50 million players worldwide. Search and subscribe to Witness History wherever you get your BBC podcast.