Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas commander who masterminded the October 7 massacre, reportedly told Hamas officials based outside of Gaza to reject any deals to return the hostages in-part because the Biden-Harris administration was beginning to turn on Israel.
The information was featured in a report from The Wall Street Journal about the effort that went in to locating and killing Sinwar after he spent a year on the run following the attacks.
He told Hamas’ political leadership to refuse making any concessions and to prolong negotiations for as long as possible because “high civilian casualties would create worldwide pressure on Israel,” the report said.
Around March, Sinwar urged them to “refuse a hostage deal,” the report said.
He said that Hamas, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization, had the upper hand — in part because of “mounting U.S. pressure to alleviate the suffering in Gaza.”
The Biden-Harris administration started applying pressure on Israel to pull back its military efforts against Hamas shortly after Israel began responding because it was hurting the administration’s support with the far-left wing of the Democrat Party with an election right around the corner.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized killing Sinwar in 2021 after the terrorist group fired rockets into Israel but the effort failed and Netanyahu’s government later collapsed.
That summer, Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett proposed killing Sinwar but there was a “split” among the officials who made the call.
After Sinwar urged Arab Israelis to murder Jews in April 2022, Bennett authorized an operation to kill him but Bennett’s government later collapsed and the operation did not move forward.
While Netanyahu and Bennett, both right-wing, authorized taking out Sinwar, the report did not make any mention of Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who is left of center and took power after Bennett.
Sinwar was killed last week when Israeli forces operating inside Rafah noticed three terrorists trying to sneak into a building undetected.
After engaging in gunfire with the terrorists, a nearby tank blew up the building. Sinwar’s dead body was later discovered inside.
The Israeli military published footage of Yahya Sinwar before he was killed by the IDF. pic.twitter.com/O2qF7CszvT
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 17, 2024
The Israeli military released footage showing the moment a tank shell fired on the building where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed. pic.twitter.com/9pDfwFEplD
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 18, 2024