Israel’s announcement of the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and declaring it as “the beginning of the end” will not bring peace to Gaza or end the suffering of people in the Palestinian enclave, analysts said, pointing out that assassination campaigns have been a hindrance to achieving a cease-fire all along.

Further, they said that Israel was offering a “distraction” amid its attempts to “entirely depopulate Gaza of its indigenous inhabitants”, while the Joe Biden administration in Washington — which called Sinwar’s death a “good day” for the world — is looking to score political gains from developments in the Middle East as the US presidential election draws near.

Farhan Mujahid Chak, visiting faculty at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, told China Daily that the assassination of Sinwar will make “absolutely no difference” to the lives of the millions of people impacted, not just in Gaza, the West Bank or Lebanon, but throughout the region.

READ MORE: Hamas not to participate in Gaza ceasefire talks, says official

Chak said it would make “no difference to bring us closer to peace or negotiations”, contrary to what Israel and the US have been claiming, adding that if anything has been proven true after all this time, is that the US “is entirely in support of the crimes against humanity and factually speaking, the genocide that is being committed”.

“This is just meant for distraction to prolong what is obviously an attempt to entirely depopulate Gaza of its indigenous inhabitants and then repopulate it with radical extremists who basically are intent on the destruction of the Palestinians’ existence and (their) way of life,” he added.

In July, Israel’s parliament passed a resolution that overwhelmingly rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In a meeting chaired by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Oct 17, the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization condemned the continuous “Israeli war of genocide”, particularly in northern Gaza, as part of the so-called "Generals' Plan", aimed at displacing the population in the region and implementing policies of killing and extermination to further entrench occupation and colonization, Wafa reported.

Since Hamas attacked Israel in October last year, triggering a wide-scale conflict, several militant leaders have been killed, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, and Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was among the key cease-fire negotiators.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed eliminating Sinwar in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct 17. However, Palestinian militant group Hamas has yet to confirm the death of their leader.

In a video message posted on social media platform X following the announcement of Sinwar’s killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while “this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end”.

"To the people of Gaza, I have a simple message. This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages,” said Netanyahu.

US President Biden, in his statement, referred to Sinwar’s death as “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world”, alleging that the Hamas leader was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis, Palestinians, American and citizens of over 30 countries, as well as being the mastermind of the Oct 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The US president also blamed Sinwar for being an “obstacle” to political settlements amid the Gaza conflict.

Biden credited US intelligence for helping the the IDF track Hamas leaders. Despite Sinwar’s reported death, the US president said that “much work remains before us”.

The latest Israeli military maneuvers come at a time when US media outlets have reported that US Democratic presidential candidate and current vice-president, Kamala Harris, was losing ground in domestic polls ahead of the US elections in November.

“I don’t think we are on the eve or we are close to a political deal. Maybe the US wants this (cease-fire) deal now before the election as a matter of publicity and marketing on its efforts in the region,” Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin, West Bank, told China Daily.

The US and its allies view Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon as “terrorist organizations” while many Palestinians view the militant groups as resistance leaders against Israeli occupation that enjoys US support to carry out killings in the guise of “self-defense”.

Yousef said that following the assassination, Sinwar is a “martyr in the eyes of the Palestinians”.

The Israeli military released a drone video of what it said was Sinwar, sitting an apparently injured in an armchair and covered in dust inside a destroyed building, managing to throw a long stick at the approaching drone in the last moment.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations has said the killing of Sinwar would lead to the strengthening of “resistance” in the region, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah declared a “transition to a new and escalatory phase” in the conflict.

In September, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution that demanded Israel to end its illegal occupation in Palestinian territory, but to this day the resolution continues to be ignored, also with the backing of the US.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and international adviser to Jewish Voice for Peace, told Al Jazeera that the killing of Sinwar would not lead to a cease-fire in Gaza. The words of Biden or Secretary of State Antony Blinken “don’t matter if their actions don’t change and if the actions continue to be sending Israel all of the weapons that they require to enable this war, this genocide to continue,” Bennis said.

Sinwar’s death comes at a time the UN Security Council is hearing that Israel’s heightened military offensive in the north of Gaza around Jabaliya has displaced an estimated 55,000 people with water and food running out.

There are an estimated 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, and some 11,000 pregnant women are said to be suffering hunger and malnutrition.

“The atrocities in Gaza must end, but this cannot happen through words; it must happen through action — urgent, unequivocal action,” said Joyce Msuya, the UN’s acting under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

Msuya reported that, since her last briefing to the Security Council on Oct 9, the people of Gaza “have suffered multiple mass casualties due to Israeli air strikes, with nearly 400 Palestinians killed in Gaza and almost 1,500 injured”.  She also noted reports of people burning alive at the Al Aqsa Hospital in the recent days.

“What troubles me most is there is no peace plan. And there is no sincere attempt to pursue a peace plan. There is a rogue, radical government in Israel that is assassinating peace negotiators and feels that somehow this will resolve the situation,” said Chak from Georgetown University.

READ MORE: Chinese envoy reiterates call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

“Where is this going after a year? There is no end in sight. And there is no plan that is being implemented. Rather, there are plans that have been put forward. Several. All of which have been vetoed or ignored by the Western countries. That is the sad reality,” he added.

Chak said that there might be “lip service in talks, to respect human rights”, but in reality, none was real because “you don’t speak of human rights and send weapons and arms to facilitate the murder of people, especially women and children”.

“They don’t go hand in hand,” he said, referring to the US and its continued supply of arms to Israel. “The US has been talking … and we’ve been hearing about nearing the end of the war … but we’re nowhere near (that).”

Contact the writer at jan@chinadailyapac.com