Did Israel err in releasing video of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar's final moments?

The video showing Sinwar sitting in a chair in a bombed out building countered the Israeli narrative of the Hamas chief hiding in tunnels and using human shields. 

Moments after Israel announced the death of Hamas chief, the mastermind of the October 7 attack on Israel, the Israeli military released a drone footage showing Yahya Sinwar's final moments. Covered in dust and his arm amputated, Sinwar is seen throwing a stick at the drone -- which social media users 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, dressed in a military-style vest, half buried in the rubble of a destroyed building. While Israel would have hoped to portray the video as a fitting end for a terrorist, a year after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel, it turned out to inspire several Gazans and Gaza supporters.

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

In fact, the video showing Sinwar sitting in a chair in a bombed out building countered the Israeli narrative of the Hamas chief hiding in tunnels and using human shields.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on several occasions, claimed that the 61-year-old Sinwar spent much of his time hiding in tunnels in the Gaza Strip along with a cadre 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. As Sinwar escaped into a building, the Israeli team located him with a drone before firing a shell into it.

"Images published by the Hebrew media made martyr Yahya Sinwar an eternal legend... He was martyred as a true resistance fighter, fighting till the end," an X user commented. Another said it captured Sinwar's fierce spirit and commitment to his cause.

Despite eliminating its most-wanted, Israel knows it can hardly breathe easy. "Today, evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not yet complete," Netanyahu said while announcing Sinwar's killing.

Since the 1990s, Israel has bumped off every leader of Hamas. But there has always been a successor and the video released by Israel may serve to unite the outfit and energise 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.

It must be remembered that Hamas still has Israeli hostages and breaking the outfit's hierarchical structure will not be easy.

Even with Hezbollah, it was seen that despite Israel killing its chief Hassan Nasrallah and several of its top commanders, the organisation didn't collapse. The Iran-backed outfit is presently being operated by Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Kassem.

"This is because the command is distributed across smaller units that keep functioning, and also due to the strong ideological and religious fervour that drives organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah," a security expert told The Jerusalem Post.