‘Megalomaniac’ Sinwar ordered renewal of suicide bombings after taking power – report
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, increasingly viewed as a “megalomaniac” by senior officials in the terror group, ordered commanders in the West Bank to renew suicide attacks in Israel shortly after he replaced the slain Ismail Haniyeh as head of the organization’s politburo, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The order was given shortly before a failed suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August, the report said, citing unnamed Arab intelligence officials.
Some senior Hamas members reportedly had reservations about the decision, but have not been speaking up on the matter since Sinwar took power.
Palestinian suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians were commonplace during the bloody Second Intifada in the early 2000s, killing hundreds of Israelis, as well as in the 1990s, but have become rare since Israel built a security barrier around the West Bank and boosted its intelligence-gathering methods to thwart the bombers.
The Journal report also confirmed previous reports that Sinwar has recently renewed contact with ceasefire-and-hostage deal mediators, citing unnamed Arab officials involved in the negotiations.
The outlet said it viewed a handwritten letter by Sinwar from last month in which the terror chief said Hamas is ready for a prolonged war of attrition to “break Israel’s will” and pave the way for the nation’s demise.
The report said the letter quoted the Quran: “And they ask, ‘When will that be?’ Say, ‘Perhaps it will be soon.’”
The Journal painted a picture in which Sinwar is an extremist figure even among the ranks of a Palestinian terror group avowedly dedicated to destroying Israel, having refused last year to travel out of Gaza for reconciliation talks with rival Palestinian factions due to fears Haniyeh would unseat him during this time.
The report cited unnamed current and former Arab and Israeli officials who said Sinwar surprised even other Hamas members overseas with the timing of the October 7, 2023, onslaught.
This prompted Hamas officials in Qatar to privately call Sinwar a “megalomaniac,” the report said, adding that Sinwar has recently been talking about the current war and his own role in it in “increasingly grandiose terms.”
After Haniyeh’s assassination in July — blamed on Israel, though Jerusalem has not confirmed or denied its involvement — Hamas political officials had reportedly suggested former leader Khaled Mashaal as his successor, before the Sinwar-led military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, sent a message that Sinwar must be picked.
Sinwar spent decades in an Israeli prison after being convicted in 1989 of conducting the kidnapping and execution of two Israeli soldiers.
Known as the “Butcher from Khan Younis” due to his enthusiastic execution of Palestinians alleged to have collaborated with Israel, Sinwar was released from jail as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.
Always considered a hardliner within Hamas, he is infamous for his key role in founding Hamas’s military wing and security services, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades and Majd, which committed numerous terror attacks against Israelis prior to October 7.
Source » timesofisrael.com
