Hamas is leaderless and struggling to find a new boss after October 7 orchestrator Yahya Sinwar disappeared from the radar, Israel claimed.
In recent weeks, Israel has concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, Sinwar’s hometown and just a few kilometers from Rafah.
Israel has vowed to eliminate the terrorist group behind last year’s deadly attack in southern Israel, and the IDF insists its military operations are tightening the noose around the terrorist group’s leadership and strongholds.
Despite mounting pressure, Hamas officials have said that Sinwar – the group’s leader in Gaza – would rather fight to the death than surrender or go into exile.
However, the IDF has now said that “there is no one who can assume leadership” of Hamas after Sinwar “escaped” the coastal strip through underground tunnels.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: ‘Hamas’ operation in Gaza is unresponsive, with no local leadership for dialogue, leading external leaders to search for a new internal chief.’
Israel has concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, a few kilometers from Rafah and the hometown of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, accused of orchestrating the October 7 attack.
The Israeli military released a video last week that it said shows Sinwar with his relatives in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory.
A photograph taken from Rafah shows smoke rising over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Monday’s Israeli bombardment.
He added: “Hamas does not trust its commanders, this is something very, very notable.”
‘The Hamas-Gaza station is not responding, there is no one to talk to as a leader on the ground.
“That means there is a bidding on who will administer Gaza.”
Mohammed Deif, the shadowy head of Hamas’s armed wing, who also grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp, is seen as a possible replacement.
Last week, Israel’s military released a video it said shows Sinwar with his relatives in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory.
The black and white images, reportedly taken on October 10, show a man, believed to be Sinwar, being led through a tunnel along with a woman and three children, said to be the first of him since the war broke out. between Israel and Hamas.
“This is how he escaped with his family from an underground tunnel to a secure complex he had previously built,” said army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
‘This Sinwar video is the result of our search. This hunt will not end until we have captured him dead or alive.
The IDF says the man circled in red above is Yahya Sinwar in images allegedly taken on October 10.
It was not clear from the images (pictured above) where the tunnel was located, but in recent weeks the Israeli army has attacked Khan Yunis, the main city in southern Gaza and Sinwar’s hometown.
Hagari said the video had been filmed on October 10, three days after Hamas carried out an attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The authenticity of the video has not been independently verified.
Hagari said Israeli troops had discovered the video on a security camera during an operation in a tunnel, without giving further details about the location.
“The images show Hamas leader and mass murderer Yahya Sinwar fleeing with his children and one of his wives,” he said at a briefing.
It was not clear from the images where the tunnel was located.
Hagari said the video had been filmed on October 10, three days after Hamas carried out an attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s air, land and sea bombings of Gaza in response have killed more than 28,000 people since then, Palestinian health officials say.
Sinwar did not expect Israel’s retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack to be “so dangerous,” said his former prison mate Esmat Mansour.
Yahya Sinwar, elected Hamas leader, appears during a ceremony honoring fighters killed by Israeli airstrikes at the Yarmouk soccer stadium in Gaza City, May 24, 2021.
The October 7 massacre in Israel perpetrated by Hamas during a musical event left 1,200 victims
Sinwar’s calculations about the effect of Hamas’ deadly incursion into Israel on Black Saturday “did not go as planned,” and he believed the Israelis’ reaction was “uncontrolled, without any justification,” according to Mansour.
Mansour told Sky News that his terrorist friend’s plan was miscalculated and gave Israel an excuse to unleash hellfire on the Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
Mansour said: “I did not expect that the operation would complicate things so much and go so far and become so dangerous and gave Israel every reason and excuse to break all the rules.”
Sinwar’s plan was to use the massacre to help free his friend from prison and turn him into another Hamas leader, as well as lift the “Israeli siege” on the area.
The 61-year-old Hamas chief is one behind supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The high-ranking terrorist, who speaks fluent Hebrew, spent two decades in prison before being freed in 2011 in a hostage deal.
Sinwar was one of more than 1,000 prisoners in an Israeli prison who were released back to Palestine in exchange for a single Israeli soldier: Gilad Shalit.
Shalit had been captured by Hamas in 2006 when he was 19 and spent five years in captivity.
He was the first hostage soldier sent alive to Israel since 1985.
According to the Financial Times, Israel says Sinwar is a “living dead man,” if only they could find him.
The head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, speaks during a meeting in Gaza City on April 30, 2022.
Deadly fighting continued in Gaza today after Israel warned that unless Hamas releases all hostages, it will continue its offensive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, including in the southernmost Rafah area.
Global concern has grown over the fate of 1.4 million Palestinians who have been forced to move to Rafah, near the border with Egypt, enduring shelling and severe food shortages in cramped makeshift shelters and tents.
Nighttime attacks and battles in Gaza killed more than 100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, raising the death toll to more than 29,000, the Health Ministry said in the Hamas-run territory, with fighting heaviest in Khan Yunis, just north of Rafah.
War Cabinet member Benny Gantz warned Sunday that the Israeli military is ready to advance deeper into Rafah during Ramadan, which, according to the lunar calendar, begins around March 10.
“The world should know, and the Hamas leaders should know: if the hostages are not home by Ramadan, fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” said Gantz, the former military chief of staff.
He added: ‘Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, free the hostages and the civilians of Gaza will be able to celebrate the holiday of Ramadan.’
Gantz said Israel would allow the evacuation of civilians from Rafah and “minimize civilian casualties” but has so far not specified where Palestinians could flee to, with vast swaths of territory devastated after more than four months of devastating war.
Egypt has emphasized that it does not want Gazans to flee across the border, arguing that this would facilitate an effort to empty Gaza of its Palestinian population, a goal Israel denies.
Satellite images show that Egypt has begun erecting a walled compound parallel to the border with Gaza, in an apparent precautionary measure in case of a mass flight of refugees.