So what’s next? Palestinian terrorist Yahya Sinwar was eliminated on Thursday night Perth time, this is a monumental win for the Israeli defence forces. They publicly stated they would hunt this terrorist down and when I woke up Friday morning his death wax confirmed. As Sinwar had been held in the Israeli prison system, his fingerprints, dental records and DNA were used to identify him.

So with a decentralised leadership structure used in terrorist cells, they will have a successor, possibly his brother Mohammad Sinwar. However, Sinwar was the leading cause of holding up peace discussions, he was a hardcore terrorist that used the Palestinian people as collateral, their lives were meaningless to him. Sinwar had been the enforcer of Hamas, he had tortured and murdered Palestinian people accused of collaborating with Israel.

I expected no tears and crying in the streets of Gaza, this is a person who clearly brought pain and despair to Gaza residents. Hopefully Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can use this leadership vacuum to draw Hamas fighters out of the tunnels to surrender, they can allow humanitarian aid to be brought into Gaza and they can persuade Hamas leaders to release the hostages to end the conflict. There will be no end to this war until the remaining hostages are returned.

There are still operational issues with Hezbollah to the north, I would expect them to be defeated in the next four to six weeks. Their leadership and communication have been killed and disrupted, their fighting force is being dismantled and I am confident they will lose. Just as Hamas must be annihilated in Gaza, Hezbollah must face annihilation in southern Lebanon.

Then there is Iran, what will they do? They had plans of defeating Israel through Hamas and Hezbollah, those plans are in tatters. Yes, they have launched missiles directly at Israel with limited success. Yes, some missiles have hit their targets, however for the best part, most missiles have been intercepted and shot down. There is a chance of a wider conflict erupting in the middle east, they would do well to consider their strategic defeat.