Shortly after Israel announced the death of the Hamas leader who masterminded the October 7 attack on Israel The Israeli military has released drone footage shows Yahya Sinwar's final moments. Covered in dust and with his arm amputated, Sinwar is seen throwing a stick at the drone – in what several 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, wearing 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, it proved to be an inspiration for several Gazans and Gaza supporters a year after Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel.

“Israel made the mistake of releasing footage of Yahya Sinwar's final moments. He was wearing a keffiyyeh and was seriously injured. He threw a stick at the drone filming him – a final act of defiance against the Zionist occupation. His death made him a legend. ” tweeted journalist and filmmaker Dan Cohen.

In fact, the video shows Sinwar sits on a chair in a bombed-out building contradicted the Israeli narrative that the Hamas leader was hiding in tunnels and using human shields.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly claimed that Sinwar, 61, spent much of his time hiding in tunnels in the Gaza Strip with a group of bodyguards and a “human shield” of hostages brought from Israel.

When Sinwar was found by an Israeli patrol team In a chance encounter, his security force was small and no hostages were found. As Sinwar fled into a building, the Israeli team located him with a drone and fired a grenade at him.

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

Although Israel has eliminated its most wanted, it knows it can hardly breathe a sigh of relief. “Today evil has suffered a serious blow, but the task before us is not yet complete,” Netanyahu said as he announced Sinwar’s killing.

Israel has ousted every Hamas leader since the 1990s. But there was always a successor, and the video released by Israel could serve to unite the group and re-energize Sinwar's supporters rather than herald their collapse.

The candidates include 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 organization's hierarchical structure will not be easy.

Even Hezbollah showed that the organization did not collapse, even though Israel killed its chief Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders. The Iranian-backed group is currently led by Hezbollah's deputy leader, Naim Kassem.

“This is because command is dispersed into smaller units that continue to function, and also because of the strong ideological and religious fervor that drives organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,” a security expert told The Jerusalem Post.