[New Square 10] Hamas chief Shinwar dies... Will it be a turning point in the 'Let's go war'?

■ Host: Park Seok-won Anchor
■ Starring: Sung Il-kwang, professor of Sogang University's Euromena Research Center

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN New Square 10AM] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Israeli forces have eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. With the death of the person who led the Israeli surprise attack last year, we will find out with an expert what will happen to the Gaza war. With Sung Il-kwang, a professor at Sogang University's Euromena Institute. Let's see what kind of person Shinwar is.

[Sunlight]
Yahya Sinwar was the supreme leader of Hamas as well as Gaza. So at the end of July, in Tehran, Iran on July 31, the original Hamas leader was Ismael Haniyeh. Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran and then elected a new supreme leader. Yahya Sinwar, this is the person you see on the screen. In fact, Sinwar calls it the flood operation that Israel attacked in Gaza on October 7th last year. It was Yahya Sinwar who actually planned and directed this operation from scratch and commanded and supervised everything.

[Anchor]
It was the time when this situation was triggered. There was news that the person who triggered such an incident, which led to the kidnapping of hostages during a surprise raid in the festival area, was now dead, and he was the number one target to the point where he was called a walking dead. It wasn't an assassination. He was reportedly killed during the skirmish, right?

[Sunlight]
That's how it's known right now. Now, I don't know exactly where Israel Yahya Sinwar is located and sent an operation, but I can see movement in a ruined building in Gaza by accident. So I chased it, flew a drone, and then attacked it, and there were three militants. So I suppressed it and attacked it, and eventually killed it, and when I went and saw the body, it was reported that it was Yahya Shinwar.

[Anchor]
In the first place, when you look at these predictions about where Sinwar will be, isn't there too many underground caves, Gaza? I predicted that it would be hidden deep in the tunnel. On the contrary, I think he was wandering around in the war zone.

[Sunlight]
At present, it is not known exactly why it came out to the ground without hiding in an underground tunnel.

[Anchor]
This is the screen where Yahya Sinwar was found.

[Sunlight]
A drone is filming before he dies. It's a scene where you throw a wooden stick to break down a drone, and right after that, Israel completely bombs that building. He died when the building collapsed.

[Anchor]
More than two months after Hamas's supreme political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed, Sinwar was killed. What will happen to Hamas in the future?

[Sunlight]
Hasn't Hezbollah been hit quite hard now since the death of Hezbollah's supreme leader, Hatsan Nasal? It's the same situation. Hamas was killed by Israel's overwhelming military power, but it still had control and continued to retaliate against Israel and sometimes fired rockets, but the death of Yahya Sinwar actually hit Hamas quite hard. The most important thing is who is elected as supreme leader again after Yahya Sinwar, and that's where all the focus has to be.

[Anchor]
There seems to be a voice in the international community that the hostage should be released and the situation should be closed because the person who triggered the situation has died, but on the contrary, Prime Minister Netanyahu does not seem to have any intention of ending the war.

[Sunlight]
As of now, I talked about it as a national story yesterday and the Israeli foreign minister also spoke in interviews with the media, but there is no mention that I will end the war in Gaza right now. For now, Israel's position will see who will succeed Sinwar as supreme leader. Under what terms the newly elected supreme leader will negotiate with Israel and how to release all the hostages. We still have 101 hostages.

Under what conditions the hostage will be released. If Israel's conditions are right, you can negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, you can sign a cease-fire, you can go to a cease-fire, but if Israel's conditions are not met, I still say that Israel is likely to continue guerrilla warfare in Gaza.

[Anchor]
What does Israel want?

[Sunlight]
First of all, it is urgent for Israel to prevent Hamas from ruling Gaza again. To do that, if Israel goes to war in this situation and ends with a ceasefire and all Israeli troops are withdrawn from Gaza, Hamas will be reorganized again and Hamas will be regrouped and reborn as a new organization.

[Anchor]
It will lead to another focal point despite the death of the Supreme Leader.

[Sunlight]
That's right. Someone will definitely be elected as the supreme leader now. There are a lot of people, leaders. That's why if Israel steps down here, it's no different from the situation before October 7. That is why we have no choice but to destroy Hamas militants who continue to be reorganized in Gaza, even if Israel takes time. And I'll try to make a deal with the international community, the United States, and then the Palestinian moderates about who will rule Gaza after Hamas. That's why we keep saying that we remain in Gaza.

[Anchor]
Israel's will to annihilate seems to be clear, and Iran's will to resist will be strong. If this happens, won't the Middle East war be expanded?

[Sunlight]
That's right. First of all, the situation in Gaza has to wait a little longer to see who is elected in this situation, and wouldn't Israel be about to retaliate against Iran? So, we have to wait and see what level of retaliatory attacks we will have, so we can say that the situation is better than before because the strongest leader, Yahya Sinwar, has died, but we can't expect that the war in Gaza will end and then all the hostages will be released and the war in Gaza will end.

[Anchor]
Let's look at another front. It's about the war in Ukraine, and President Zelensky said North Korea is preparing to send 10,000 troops. Is there a reason for publicizing the rumor of sending North Korean troops every day?

[Sunlight]
The reason is that they want the help of the international community. Now, the Ukraine-Russia war is not just a matter of the United States and NATO, and please pay attention to the war between Ukraine and Russia. Please give me more support. That's why North Korea continues to support it, and I think this is not just a war with Ukraine and Russia, but a strategy to continue to raise it as an international issue that countries in Asia are now participating in and get help from the international community.

[Anchor]
President Zelensky is even claiming that some North Korean troops are already on the front line, but what do you think of the possibility that the South Korean government provided manpower support, not troops?

[Sunlight]
That's right. A different voice is coming out. The Ministry of Unification is talking about manpower, not troops, and the Foreign Ministry and Ambassador to the U.S. are probably troops, so the nuance is a little different.Ma, if you send troops, it proves that the situation is very difficult for Russia. It's quite difficult.

In the case of human resources, you can support the workforce with construction, other war supplies, or these things, but it feels a little different because it actually proves that the number of Russian troops is insufficient or quite problematic.

[Anchor]
If more than 10,000 North Korean troops were sent as President Zelensky claims, how would it affect the war between Russia and Ukraine?

[Sunlight]
Then I think it will be of great help to Russia, which is struggling with a shortage of troops. This, on the contrary, could be quite a blow to Ukraine. Also, from our perspective, if 10,000 troops are sent, military cooperation between Russia and North Korea can be significantly strengthened, and in return, we cannot help but worry about what North Korea will bring from Russia, what military technology, and what it will bring.

[Anchor]
I see. I'll stop listening to it. So far, I have been with Sung Il-kwang, a professor at Sogang University's Euromena Research Institute. Thank you.