The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is "a very significant development" and a major step in Israel's war against Hamas, says former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
"Obviously, Sinwar was the commander on the ground of Hamas forces in Gaza, their political leadership is safe elsewhere in the Middle East, in Qatar, in all probability where they've been for many years," Bolton told Newsmax TV's "National Report."
Sinwar’s killing "is a major step toward Israel achieving its stated objective of eliminating Hamas's political and military infrastructure," but "the real war that’s been happing since last October 7th is not Hamas against Israel, it’s Iran against Israel," and "the terrorist infrastructure that Iran has created is being systematically destroyed," he added.
The next big step is "what the Israeli government decides to do in retaliation for the October 1st Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel," he told Newsmax.
This retaliation may come "literally any day now," he said, adding that Israel shouldn’t "withhold simply because they got Sinwar."
Bolton said, "It’s different aspects of the same war, and Iran itself, for all the terror and horror that it's imposed … hasn’t paid any price for years worth of barbarity and it's about time they do."