UC Santa Barbara Professor says Israel’s killing of Hamas leader will strengthen Hamas and further escalate tensions

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is raising questions regarding the future of Israel and Palestine. 

We spoke with Political Science Professor, Mark Juergensmeyer, about what this means for peace talks.

The seasoned UC Santa Barbara Professor teaches his students about conflict resolution.

He says he even sat with the founder of Hamas in the 90s, and the time it was a new movement developing in Gaza that advocated for Palestinian liberation.

He says that as long as Israel continues to indiscriminately kill civilians, more people will join Hamas to fight for their freedom.

Palestinian health authorities say, since October 7th, Israel has killed more than 41,500 people, with the majority of identified victims being women and children. 

It’s taken Israel a year to eliminate Sinwar, who was the mastermind behind the October 7th attacks that killed roughly 1,200 people. 

Juergensmeyer says that even though some are hopeful that the killing of Hamas leaders will end the war, Netanyahu’s goal to kill all of Hamas leadership will have irreversible consequences. 

In the long term, he says this move will strengthen Hamas as it has in the past.
  
“The same thing has happened with Hezbollah and Hamas before when Israel killed their leaders as a way of degrading their competence and the movement's road roared back even more strongly. We have the historical background to indicate that this is most likely what will happen. There's no way Israel can prevent that from happening in the future other than destroying everybody,” said Juergensmeyer.
  
Jurgensmeyer did say in the short run Hamas will be weakened, as will Hezbollah in Lebanon.
 
Both will need time to regroup.
 
He adds that Netanyahu has shown no restraint and is capitalizing off of this critical moment with the with the looming U.S. November election.

The professor says the only way this bloodshed will end is if the United States stops sending weapons to Israel.