The world’s glimpse into Hamas leader Yahya Sinwars' dying moments was rough and raw – wounded and cornered – he sat in a bombed-out Palestinian home but yet faced down the Israeli drone filming him, hurling a stick at it with his last strentgh.
Israel has attempted to spin the scene as one of victory, showing Sinwar, the alleged architect of Oct. 7, broken and defeated.
But many in the Arab and Muslim world – whether they support Hamas or not – saw something different in the grainy footage: A defiant martyr who died fighting to the end.
Clips from the released drone footage went viral on social media, accompanied by quotes from Sinwar's speeches in which he declared that he would rather die on the battlefield.
An oil painting of a masked Sinwar sitting proudly on an armchair was widely shared, apparently inspired by the last image of him alive.
"By broadcasting the last minutes of the life of Yahya Sinwar, the occupation made his life longer than the lives of his killers," Osama Gaweesh, an Egyptian media personality and journalist, wrote on social media.
In Gaza, people mourned his killing, while a handful hoped it could bring an end to Israel's genocidal war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion. Across the Arab and Muslim world, and away from the devastation in Gaza, opinions varied.
One thing, though, was clear. The footage was hailed by supporters and even some critics as evidence of a man killed in a confrontation who at least wasn't hidden in a tunnel surrounded by hostages as Israel has said he was for much of the last year.
Three days after he was killed, Israel’s military dropped leaflets in south Gaza, showing another image of Sinwar's body.
"I don’t think there is a Palestinian leader of the first rank who died in a confrontation (like Sinwar), according to what the leaked Israeli version shows," said Sadeq Abu Amer, head of the Palestinian Dialogue Group, an Istanbul-based think tank.
Unlike Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in his hotel room in Iran, or the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah, bombed in an underground bunker by dozens of massive munitions, Sinwar was killed while apparently fighting Israeli forces, more than a year after Tel Aviv launched its war.
Iran, the Shiite powerhouse and a main backer of Hamas, went further. It contrasted Sinwar’s death with that of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Tehran’s archenemy.
In a statement by Iran’s U.N. Mission, it said Saddam appeared disheveled out of an underground hole, dragged by U.S. forces while "he begged them not to kill him despite being armed." Sinwar, on the other hand, was killed in the open while "facing the enemy," Iran said.
In a strongly worded statement, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning in the world, blasted Israel’s portrayal of Sinwar as a terrorist. Without naming Sinwar, the statement said that the "martyrs of the resistance" died defending their land and their cause.
In Israel, the army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, described Sinwar as "defeated, outcast, and persecuted," while many celebrated the news of his death.
In the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, many remembered him with respect, while some expressed anger.
"He died as a fighter, as a martyr," said Somaia Mohtasib, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza City.
For Saleh Shonnar, a resident of north Gaza now displaced to the center, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed. "Hundreds, tens of senior leaders were martyred and replaced with new leaders."
In Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace, mourners in a bombed-out mosque recited the funeral prayer for a Muslim when the body is missing. Israel has seized Sinwar's body. Dozens of men and children took part in the prayers.
And in Wadi al-Zayne, a town in Lebanon’s Chouf region with a significant Palestinian population, Bilal Farhat said that Sinwar’s death made him a symbol of heroic resistance.
"He died fighting on the front line. It gives him some sort of mystical hero aura," Farhat said.
