Gaza chief’s brutal calculation: Civilian bloodshed will help Hamas
Live MintFor months, Yahya Sinwar has resisted pressure to cut a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Israel. Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas units in the Gaza Strip’s south has disrupted humanitarian-aid shipments, caused mounting civilian casualties and intensified international criticism of Israel’s efforts to eradicate the Islamist extremist group. In an April 11 letter to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh after three of Haniyeh’s adult sons were killed by an Israeli airstrike, Sinwar wrote that their deaths and those of other Palestinians would “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor." By November, Hamas’s political leadership privately began distancing themselves from Sinwar, saying he launched the Oct. 7 attacks without telling them, Arab officials who spoke to Hamas said. “Israel’s journey in Rafah won’t be a walk in the park," Sinwar told Hamas leaders in Doha in a message.