of wall street journalCiting unnamed sources, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar claimed on Wednesday that when he took over Hamas in August, he asked terrorists to increase the frequency of suicide bombings.
Mr. Sinwar previously headed Hamas's “military” wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, but became head of the entire organization after the death of its “political” chief, Ismail Haniyeh, on July 30. Haniyeh was in Tehran, Iran, for the inauguration. President Massoud Pezeshkian was killed in an explosion in his quarters. Iran and Hamas both blame Israel for the explosion, but Israel has not taken responsibility for the explosion.
of wall street journal Sinwar also claimed that he had privately requested another suicide bombing from another senior Hamas terrorist. However, before the end of August, another top Hamas terrorist, Khalid Mashal, appears in Turkey, and Hamas and its Islamist sympathizers begin attempting “martyrdom operations” or suicide bombings against Israel in support of the terrorists. he demanded.
of wall street journal quoted In the report, a purported “Arab intelligence official” claimed that shortly after taking over Hamas, Sinwar declared “now is the time to bring back suicide bombings.” The report noted that Israel thwarted a suicide bombing several days later. of journal The report strangely sympathetically casts Haniya, a billionaire who lived lavishly in Qatar from promoting anti-Semitic terrorism, as a “moderate” who tempered Sinwar's “megalo” tendencies. I'm drawing.
“As Israeli forces continue to squeeze Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar is now imposing a more violent vision on Hamas.” journal he claimed.
In fact, Hamas genocidal An organization whose members are dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the complete eradication of its people. Similarly, journal He blamed the decline in the number of Hamas-related suicide bombings over the past two decades on the “moderation” of some senior terrorists. of era of israel noticed Contrary to that interpretation, this week argued that the decline in suicide bombings occurred after “Israel erected a security barrier around the West Bank and strengthened intelligence-gathering measures to thwart the bombers.”
This file photo taken on May 1, 2017 shows the Yahya Sinwar Front in Gaza City. (Wissam Nassar/Xinhua via Getty)
of journal It also reported, citing unnamed “Arab officials,” that some Hamas leaders were “uneasy” about the order, although no one said so publicly. This claim also contradicts the fact that Mashal, head of Hamas's Diaspora Office, gave a speech in August calling on Hamas supporters to organize suicide bombings.
“Today, an escalation of this conflict is needed in the West Bank, within the 1948 borders and in the Diaspora,” he said at an anti-Israel conference in Turkey. “Today in the West Bank we saw some early signs of success in martyrdom. We want to return to martyrdom. This requires an all-out conflict.”
“We should develop all forms of resistance, and first and foremost martyrdom,” Mashal insisted. “We should engage in these operations. We should have an all-out confrontation. We should rekindle this spirit in the West Bank and the 1948 borders. Otherwise, Israel will fight us piece by piece. It will be.”
Turkey is one of Hamas's closest state allies. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an Islamist, has publicly declared on several occasions that he believes “Hamas is not a terrorist organization,” including on October 7, 2023. Jihadists killed an estimated 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages, including immediately after Hamas's siege of Israel. 97 of the hostages remain do not havebelieved to be in Gaza.
Like Mashal, the al-Qassam Brigades also released a message in September calling on Palestinians and other Muslims to take part in a “mass martyrdom operation” against Israel.
“And we … tell our oppressive enemies that the rivers of blood flowing on the land of Gaza will be met with a game-changing mass martyrdom operation inside Gaza,” it declared in part. ”
Sinwar's status as a spokesperson remains a mystery. He remains in Gaza, according to multiple reports. of wall street journalsources claimed that Sinwar had contacted them within the past week. On Monday, era of israel reported Israel's Channel 12 said that after weeks of no contact, it contacted someone it believed had contacted Hamas' allies in Qatar to discuss the possibility of negotiating a ceasefire. However, Israeli news agency Ynet reported on Tuesday that its “high-ranking” sources said: claimed Shinwar said he was “isolated” and had not contacted Qatar.
