Israel has nearly 40 years of experience in dealing with the leader of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, but “the misreading of his personality constituted a prelude to Israel’s biggest intelligence failure,” according to a report by the newspaper “Financial Times” British.
The report considered that the Israeli experience in dealing with Sinwar “only led to calming down Israeli security leaders and giving them a false sense of self-satisfaction.”
Michael Milstein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer and expert on Palestinian affairs, told the British newspaper: “We did not understand him at all,” referring to Sinwar.
After the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, Israel set “eliminating Sinwar” as a main goal of its military campaign in Gaza.
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said in a press conference: “We will find Sinwar and eliminate him,” adding, “I say to the residents of Gaza: If you find him before we do, that will shorten the war.”
Shortly after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian movement listed as a terrorist organization, Israel said that Al-Sinwar, who is the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza, and Muhammad Deif, the movement’s military expert, who is considered the commander of Hamas forces, are “the two most important targets for its army in the war.”
From Israeli prisons to Hamas leadership… Who is Sinwar being pursued in Gaza?
Israel accuses the leader of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, along with Muhammad Al-Deif, the chief of staff of the Al-Qassam Brigades, of being behind the October 7 attack on towns in the Gaza Strip, where it is believed that he is still hiding in the network of tunnels that the movement dug along the length and breadth of the Strip.
Israeli security sources said that Al-Sinwar and Al-Deif “are now in the middle of a network of tunnels built specifically against the bombing campaign launched by Israel,” according to Agence France-Presse.
Sinwar is considered the person most responsible for the surprise October 7 attack, according to the Financial Times, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refers to him as a “dead man walking.”
Sinwar had been detained in Israeli prisons since the late 1980s, when the Hamas movement began to emerge in the Gaza Strip, before he was released as part of the deal for the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was recovered by Israel in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, in 2011.
But when Israel arrested him, it was because of his “special role” within Hamas, which was “hunting down Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel,” according to the Financial Times.
Micha Kubi, who interrogated Sinwar for the Shin Bet intelligence agency in 1989, said that the Hamas leader “confessed to committing a murder.”
This was at the height of the so-called “First Palestinian Intifada.” Kobe was a Shin Bet officer hunting down members of Hamas, which was then “a small armed Islamic group rising to the fore in Gaza.”
“Psychological evaluation”
An Israeli intelligence assessment of Sinwar during his time in prison said that he was “tough… reliable, influential, and accepted by his friends.”
In addition, the evaluation considers that Al-Sanwar “has extraordinary abilities of endurance, cunning and manipulation, and is content with little… He keeps secrets even inside the prison among other prisoners.”
Al-Sinwar (61 years old) grew up in a poor neighborhood in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, and first appeared on the political scene in the early 1980s, when he was advising the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was confined to a wheelchair.
Al-Sanwar’s neighbor in Khan Yunis was Muhammad Deif, now the mysterious military commander of Hamas.
In addition to helping establish the group’s military wing, Sinwar was put in charge of the internal security apparatus known as the “Glory Force,” forces tasked with eliminating Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.
This earned him the nickname “The Butcher of Khan Yunis,” which some Palestinians call Sinwar to this day, according to the newspaper.
Kobe said that Sinwar “bragged – whether correctly or as a boast – about the punishment imposed on a suspected Palestinian informant.”
Hamas’s spider tunnels…the “biggest threat” to the Israeli army
A lengthy report by the Associated Press, on Saturday, shed light on the network of tunnels built by Hamas under Gaza, describing it as representing the “greatest threat” to Israeli forces preparing to launch a massive ground attack on the besieged Strip.
Al-Sinwar summoned the man’s brother (suspected of working with Israel), who is a member of Hamas, and “made him bury his brother alive.” “This is Yahya Sinwar,” Kobe said.
An Israeli military court convicted Al-Sinwar of killing 12 Palestinians, including the man who was buried alive, according to two people familiar with the case, whose identities the British newspaper did not reveal.
While he was in Israeli prisons for twenty years, he learned the Hebrew language and used it in a television interview with an Israeli channel.
Instead of war, he urged the Israeli public to “support a long-term truce with Hamas.” He acknowledged that they “do not have the ability to destroy Israel,” which is the goal of the Palestinian movement, which is listed on the terrorist list in the United States and a number of countries.
In that interview, Sinwar said: “We do not recognize the State of Israel, but we are ready to go to a long-term truce for our generation and the next generation, which will bring the region to a period of calm and prosperity.”
The official Israeli intelligence assessment was that “the Hamas movement, led by Sinwar, was reluctant to fight another war and was interested in reaching a broader agreement with Israel,” according to the British newspaper.
According to Israeli intelligence, “the Hamas attack required at least a year of planning,” and Sinwar’s statements, as Israeli officials and analysts now assert, “were merely a deception aimed at buying time.”
The Financial Times spoke with a source (non-Israeli) who has long experience with Sinwar, without revealing his identity. This man said of Sinwar: “He has a huge ego. He’s a sociopath. I don’t mean that as an insult.”
He added that Sinwar was prepared to “sacrifice tens of thousands of lives, and more, to achieve his goals.”
For his part, Milstein, an Israeli military intelligence officer, said: “We have to face it… He is motivated by hatred, massacres and the destruction of Israel.”
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2023-11-06 15:15:33