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The world’s final glimpse of Hamas’ leader was rough and raw, showing him wounded and cornered as he sat in a bombed-out Palestinian home and faced down the Israeli drone filming him, hurling a stick at it.

For Israel, the scene was one of victory, showing Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Oct. 7, broken and defeated.

But many in the Arab and Muslim world — whether supporters of Hamas or not — saw something different in the grainy footage: a defiant martyr who died fighting to the end.

Clips from the released drone footage went viral on social media, accompanied by quotes from Sinwar’s speeches in which he declared that he would rather die on the battlefield. An oil painting of a masked Sinwar sitting proudly on an armchair was widely shared, apparently inspired by the last image of him alive.

“By broadcasting the last minutes of the life of Yahya Sinwar, the occupation made his life longer than the lives of his killers,” Osama Gaweesh, an Egyptian media personality and journalist, wrote on social media.

In Gaza, reactions to Sinwar’s death were mixed. Some mourned his killing, while others expressed relief and hope that it could bring an end to the devastating war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that he is said to have directed. Across the Arab and Muslim world, and away from the devastation in Gaza, opinions varied.

One thing, though, was clear. The footage was hailed by supporters and even some critics as evidence of a man killed in confrontation who at least wasn’t hidden in a tunnel surrounded by hostages as Israel has said he was for much of the last year.

Three days after he was killed, Israel’s military dropped leaflets in south Gaza, showing another image of Sinwar lying dead on a chair, with his finger cut and blood running down his forehead. “Sinwar destroyed your lives. He hid in a dark hole and was liquidated while escaping fearfully,” the leaflet said.

“I don’t think there is a Palestinian leader of the first rank who died in a confrontation (like Sinwar), according to what the leaked Israeli version shows,” said Sadeq Abu Amer, head of the Palestinian Dialogue Group, an Istanbul-based think tank.

Sinwar’s demise was different

Unlike Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in his hotel room in Iran, or the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah, bombed in an underground bunker by dozens of massive munitions, Sinwar was killed while apparently fighting Israeli forces, more than a year after the war began.

Iran, the Shiite powerhouse and a main backer of Hamas, went further. It contrasted Sinwar’s death with that of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Tehran’s archenemy.

In a statement by Iran’s U.N. Mission, it said Saddam appeared disheveled out of an underground hole, dragged by U.S. forces while “he begged them not to kill him despite being armed.” Sinwar, on the other hand, was killed in the open while “facing the enemy,” Iran said.

In a strongly worded statement, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning in the world, blasted Israel’s portrayal of Sinwar as a terrorist. Without naming Sinwar, the statement said that the “martyrs of the resistance” died defending their land and their cause.

In Israel, the army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, described Sinwar as “defeated, outcast, and persecuted.” Many celebrated the news of the killing of the architect of the Oct. 7 attack.

Video posted online showed a lifeguard on a Tel Aviv beach announcing the news to applause, while Israeli media showed soldiers handing out sweets. Residents of Sderot, a town that was attacked by Hamas militants, were filmed dancing on the streets, some wrapped in Israeli flags. On Telegram, some shared pictures of a dead Sinwar, likening him to a rat.

But there were also protests from families of hostages and their supporters who want Israeli leaders to use the moment to bring the hostages home.

Some are energized, not demoralized

Susan Abulhawa, one of the most widely read Palestinian authors, said the images released by Israel were a source of pride. Israel “thought that publishing footage of Sinwar’s last moments would demoralize us, make us feel defeat,” she wrote on X. “In reality, the footage immortalizes Sinwar and galvanizes all of us to have courage and resolve until the last moment.”

In the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, some remembered him with respect, while others expressed anger.

“He died as a fighter, as a martyr,” said Somaia Mohtasib, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza City.

For Saleh Shonnar, a resident of north Gaza now displaced to the center, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed. “Hundreds, tens of senior leaders were martyred and replaced with new leaders.”

In Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace, mourners in a bombed-out mosque recited the funeral prayer for a Muslim when the body is missing. Israel has kept Sinwar’s body. Dozens of men and children took part in the prayers.

And in Wadi al-Zayne, a town in Lebanon’s Chouf region with a significant Palestinian population, Bilal Farhat said that Sinwar’s death made him a symbol of heroic resistance.

“He died fighting on the front line. It gives him some sort of mystical hero aura,” Farhat said.

Some Palestinians took to X to criticize Sinwar and dismiss his death in comparison to their own suffering. One speaker on a recorded discussion said there is no way of telling how he died. Another blamed him for 18 years of suffering, calling him a “crazy man” who started a war he couldn’t win. “If he is dear, we had many more dear ones killed,” one yelled.

In the long run, the think tank’s Abu Amer said that the effect of the support and empathy for Sinwar after his death is unlikely to change the Arab public’s view of Oct. 7 and what followed.

“Those who supported Oct. 7 will continue to, and those who opposed Oct. 7 — and they are many — will keep their opinions, even if they show sympathy or admiration for him. Most Palestinians are now focused on ending the war,” he said.

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Fatma Khaled reported from Cairo. Julia Frankel and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report .

SYDNEY (AP) — King Charles III and Queen Camilla were greeted by children Sunday outside a Sydney church in their first public appearance of their Australian visit.

Charles’ arrival Friday marked the first reigning British monarch visit to Australia since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II made her 16th journey to the distant nation in 2011.

Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary.

The couple spent a rest day on Saturday at Admiralty House, the official Sydney residence of the monarch’s representative in Australia, Governor-General Sam Mostyn.

The royals’ first public engagement was at a service at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney. As Charles and Camilla made their way to the front of church, Sunday school children waving Australian flags cheered and shook hands with the couple. Inside, dozens of phones pointed in their direction, while excited whispers echoed through the room. After the service, the king and queen were greeted outside by hundreds of cheering people hoping to catch a glimpse or snap a photo.

Sunday’s service was restricted to the local congregation, with only a few special guests allowed to attend, such as Mostyn and New South Wales state Governor Margaret Beazley.

A small group of protesters demonstrated nearby under a banner that read, “Empire Built on Genocide.”

The couple later attended the New South Wales state Parliament to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Australia’s first legislature.

Charles gifted an hourglass, which is traditionally used to limit the duration of lawmakers’ speeches.

“So with the sands of time encouraging brevity, it just remains for me to say what a great joy it is to come to Australia for the first time as sovereign and to renew a love of this country and its people which I have cherished for so long,” Charles said.

It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022.

The couple will attend a reception in the national capital, Canberra, on Monday. All government leaders of Australia’s six states have declined invitations to attend, which monarchists have interpreted as a snub. The non-attendants are all republicans who would prefer an Australian citizen as the nation’s head of state, rather than Britain’s monarch.

On Wednesday, Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s government said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house Saturday, with no casualties, as fighting with Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Gaza -based Hamas showed no pause after the killing of the Hamas mastermind of last year’s Oct. 7 attack.

Israel’s military said dozens of projectiles were launched from Lebanon a day after Hezbollah announced a new phase in fighting. Netanyahu’s office said the drone targeted his house in the Mediterranean coastal town of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife was there. It wasn’t clear if the house was hit.

“The proxies of Iran who today tried to assassinate me and my wife made a bitter mistake,” Netanyahu said.

Hezbollah didn’t claim responsibility but said it carried out several rocket attacks on Israel. The barrage came as Israel is expected to respond to an attack earlier this month by Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel in turn carried out at least 10 airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, a heavily populated area home to Hezbollah’s offices, Lebanese authorities said. Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah targets.

The U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, called civilian casualties in Lebanon “far too high” in the intensifying Israel-Hezbollah war and urged Israel to scale back some strikes, especially in and around Beirut.

In Gaza, Israeli forces fired at hospitals in the Palestinian enclave’s battered north, and strikes killed more than 50 people, including children, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and an Associated Press reporter there.

“The possibility of war in the region remains a serious concern,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said while visiting Turkey. Group of Seven defense ministers warned against escalation and “all-out war.”

New exchange of airstrikes

Israel’s military said about 200 projectiles were fired from Lebanon, a day after Hezbollah said it planned to send more guided missiles and exploding drones. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon this month.

A 50-year-old man was hit by shrapnel and killed in northern Israel, and four other people were wounded, Israel’s medical services said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in eastern Baaloul village killed five people, including the mayor of nearby Sohmor village. An Israeli military official confirmed that the IDF struck targets in the Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle on a highway north of Beirut, killing two people. Israel also said it killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander in the southern town of Bint Jbeil. The army said Nasser Rashid supervised attacks against Israel.

Israel has issued near-daily warnings for people to leave buildings and villages in parts of Lebanon. The fighting has displaced more than 1 million people, including around 400,000 children.

Israel drops leaflets showing Sinwar’s body

Israel’s military on Saturday dropped leaflets in southern Gaza showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar dead, blood running down his forehead. “Sinwar destroyed your lives,” it said. “Whoever lays down his weapons and returns the kidnapped people to us, we will allow him to leave and live in peace.”

Sinwar was the chief architect of the raid on Israel more than a year ago that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza.

Israel and Hamas have signaled resistance to ending the war after Sinwar’s killing. Hamas has reiterated that the hostages won’t be released until there is a cease-fire and Israeli troops withdraw. Netanyahu says Israel’s military will fight until the hostages are released, and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from regrouping.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t distinguish combatants from civilians but say more than half the dead are women and children.

More strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday, and Palestinian communications company Paltel said they knocked out internet networks in the north.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and forces opened fire at it, causing panic. The U.N. said two patients died due to a power outage and lack of supplies in recent days.

Israel’s military said it was operating near the hospital and “there was no intentional fire directed at it.”

The military also said it was looking into the matter after Al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, said strikes hit the top floors, wounding several staff members. It later said the military hit its ambulances and courtyard, wounding four people, including a medic.

Three houses in Jabaliya were struck overnight, killing at least 30 people, more than half women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. At least 80 were wounded.

Palestinian residents said Israel’s military was forcing hundreds of displaced people to leave Jabaliya and head to Gaza City.

“The occupation evicted us at gunpoint,” said Umm Sayed, a mother of three. “Tanks and heavy armed forces were encircling us.” She said many young men were taken apparently for interrogation, and most were later released.

Israel’s military described it as an evacuation and said it detained militants for questioning.

A U.N. school sheltering displaced people west of Gaza City was hit, killing several people, according to the Hamas-run civil defense first responders.

“What is this? There is a clinic and there are children,” said Bashir Haddad, a displaced person there, according to AP video. A boy collected body parts on a piece of cardboard.

Elsewhere in central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Another strike killed 11 people from the same family in the Maghazi refugee camp, the hospital said.

The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.

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Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.