"He will live on and Israel will be gone:" Qatar Emir's mother pays tribute to Sinwar

Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has paid a heartfelt tribute to Yahya Sinwar, the slain chief of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

"The name Yahya means the one who lives. They [Israel] thought him dead but he lives," she said in a post on microblogging site X.

"Like his namesake, Yahya bin Zakariya, he will live on and they will be gone," Sheikha Moza added.

The name Yahya means the one who lives. ⁰
They thought him dead but he lives. Like his namesake, Yahya bin Zakariya, he will live on and they will be gone. pic.twitter.com/Ynaz6eVWi3

— موزا بنت ناصر Moza bint Nasser (@mozabintnasser) October 18, 2024

A day earlier, Hamas confirmed that its leader was "martyred" in an Israeli attack.

"Sinwar martyred in combat with Israeli forces in Gaza," Hamas deputy head Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement

“Israeli captives held in Gaza will not return until war on Gaza stops and Israeli forces withdraw from the besieged and bombarded territory, he added.

The 62-year-old Palestinian fighter was killed by Israel during a military operation in Rafah on Wednesday.

The Israeli army initially announced it was investigating the possibility of Sinwar's death in Gaza.

Later on Thursday, Israeli media confirmed that it had killed the Hamas leader.

Following his death, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the killing of Sinwar was the "beginning of the end" of the bombardment in Gaza.

“Yahya Sinwar is dead. He was killed in Rafah by the brave soldiers of the Israel Defence Forces,” the war crimes convicted leader said in a video statement released on Friday.

“While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end," he added.