Joe Biden calls death of Yahya Sinwar an 'opportunity to seek peace' in Gaza

Speaking in Berlin, US President Joe Biden on Friday said the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was a "moment of justice" and "an opportunity to seek a path to peace" in Gaza.

Biden said Sinwar, considered the architect of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has "the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands".

The US president said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to "also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas".

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Earlier, while still on Air Force One, Biden hailed the death of Sinwar as a "good day", saying it removed a key obstacle to a Gaza truce and hostage deal.

Biden's flying visit comes weeks ahead of a US election in which allies are nervously eyeing a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Trump would be expected to soften US criticism of Israel in its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

'Day after' for Gaza

Biden's meetings in Berlin were to heavily focus on the conflict pitting Israel against Hamas and its Hezbollah allies, including the risk of a wider escalation with Iran.

Biden said Thursday he would congratulate Netanyahu but also "discuss the pathway" for securing the release of hostages and "ending this war once and for all".

"There is now the opportunity for a 'day after' in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike," he said. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking in Brussels Thursday, said "there is a proposal from President Biden and others as to what ... a ceasefire could look like and we fully support that."

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The 81-year-old Biden was originally due in Germany last week for a four-day state visit that would have included a major Ukraine defence meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

After cancelling that trip to coordinate the response to Hurricane Milton, Biden was at pains to make his valedictory Germany trip nonetheless, with a stripped-down programme squeezed into a one-day visit.

Biden was to meet from 08:00 GMT with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and receive Germany's highest honour for services to German-American friendship and the transatlantic alliance amid the Ukraine war.

Weakened leaders

Biden's Germany trip is the first by a US president since Barack Obama went in 2016 during his farewell tour with Angela Merkel.

Like Biden, centre-left Scholz is now considered a weakened leader a year ahead of German elections, with the economy doing poorly, in part because of higher energy prices brought by the Ukraine war.

Biden's withdrawal from the election race after a disastrous debate performance has sparked calls in Germany for unpopular Scholz to also let someone else within his Social Democrats (SPD) take over.

News site Spiegel wrote Friday that "two men are meeting in Berlin today whose appeal is limited despite their powerful offices".

While Biden's "age-related mistakes were so obvious that the Democrats doubted him," it said, Scholz's "unpopularity is so obvious that many in the SPD are having their doubts about him".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)