Fighting continues in the north and now also the south of the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli intelligence estimates, Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Marwan Issa and Mohammed Deif are somewhere underground in Khan Yunis. There are also estimates that 32-year-old mother Shiri Bibas and her two small children Ariel (4) and Kfir (10 months) serve as human shields for the terrorist leaders in their tunnels. For this reason, Hamas announced during the ceasefire that the family was already dead. But through other channels, Sinwar & Co. conveyed that the family was the Hamas leaders’ life insurance policy. I only mention this cautiously.
The Bibas family, including 10-months-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel and their mother Shiri were abducted by Hamas on October 7.
Hamas must be held accountable.
Hamas must release all hostages immediately. pic.twitter.com/aizQ6M0Yp2— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 29, 2023
In addition, Hamas denies all foreign reports that Hamas leaders are negotiating with Jerusalem, Washington and other governments over a possible surrender that would involve the Hamas leadership being disarmed and evacuated from the Gaza Strip. The Hamas regime as well as the thousands of terrorists it commands could go abroad in peace, just as Israel allowed PLO chief Yasser Arafat to leave Beiru with his PLO terrorists in 1982. But honestly, who wants to accept thousands of Hamas terrorists and their families into their country?
There is a big difference between Hamas in Gaza and the PLO in Lebanon in 1982. Hamas is the flesh and blood of the Palestinians in Gaza, while the PLO leadership was a foreign body in Lebanon, manipulating a civil war in the country. Lebanon was thrown into chaos until Israel had to intervene.
As things stand, no Arab country is prepared to accept the Hamas leadership on its territory if it agrees to leave the Gaza Strip. Yahya Sinwar is aware of this and that is why he is prepared to fight to the bitter end to protect his honor and the honor of Hamas. Even a single photo showing the evacuation of Sinwar and his terrorist gang from the Gaza Strip would automatically be an image of victory for Israel. A senior security official claimed in a private conversation last night that killing Sinwar would “lead to a change in the formula for the release of the Israeli hostages.” For this reason, Israeli security agencies are trying to locate Sinwar underground: “Major intelligence efforts are underway. There is a price on Sinwar’s head.”
Yahya Sinwar, der wegen seines brutalen Vorgehens gegen unschuldige Palästinenser auch als “Schlächter von Khan Younis” bekannt ist, ist das Gesicht des Bösen von Hamas.
Er ist für zahlreiche Terroranschläge gegen Israelis verantwortlich, darunter das tödliche Hamas-Massaker… pic.twitter.com/ESVeyrQkMu
— Botschaft Israel (@IsraelinGermany) December 5, 2023
Either way, Sinwar and his entire Hamas leadership are sure that they have already won a victory over Israel on October 7th, and can now die as martyrs. They really believe they are guaranteed a place in paradise with 70 virgins. They have a theoretical death wish and hope that Israel will help them. But in practice this can happen differently. If they see an opportunity to escape Gaza alive, then “heaven and the orgy with the virgins can wait.”
Hamas claims that the “military wing” in the tunnels is well prepared and can hold out against Israeli forces for several more months. However, Hamas expects more help from the Ayatollah regime in Tehran to prevent the overthrow of its reign of terror in the Gaza Strip. This itself shows the pressure Hamas is under. The expectation comes primarily from Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. But at the moment it looks like Iran will hold back. Tehran is also angry at Hamas “for screwing up the entire plan to attack Israel.”
Under no circumstances should Israel deviate from its goal of eliminating the Hamas leadership, which is hiding deep underground in a bunker in the Khan Yunis area. This cannot be achieved with air strikes alone. This requires wide and rapid ground deployment.
A targeted killing of Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa would be a major blow to Hamas and a victory for Israel on the path to overthrowing the Hamas regime in Gaza. The international clock is ticking and Israel must focus on achieving this goal as quickly as possible. This would also be a moral blow that would have a dramatic impact on the continuation of the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Israel urgently needs a triumph complete with a photo. It’s not just about revenge – which everyone in Israel wants today – but also regaining self-confidence and restoring Israel’s national honor.
In the meantime, Hamas is trying to portray itself as the victor and makes it seem as if Israel has achieved nothing in the war so far. Hamas is trying to hide in its media that Israeli forces have conquered the entire north of the Gaza Strip. Therefore, Israel urgently needs to penetrate the center of the Gaza Strip and the south, where the bulk of Hamas’s terrorist force is located.
בשעות האחרונות נמשכים הקרבות העזים ברצועת עזה. במהלך לחימת צוות הקרב של חטיבה 401 בצפון רצועת עזה, נכנסו לוחמי גדוד 601 למבנה, בו נתקלו במחבלי חמאס שפתחו לעברם בירי >> pic.twitter.com/2qkECDO7dY
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 4, 2023
Video: The IDF in the Gaza Strip
Hamas, of course, hopes that Washington and other Western governments will limit Israel’s ground offensive in the south. The Biden administration made it clear to Israel that the operation in the south can continue, but Israel must allow 200 supply trucks per day into the Gaza Strip. Of course, Israel’s security apparatus doesn’t like this, but it is a compromise that Israel has to take into account in order to maintain political backing from Washington. Furthermore, Hamas is relying on the dense Palestinian population in the Khan Yunis area to act as a human shield.
Yahya Sinwar will try to gain more time with all sorts of tricks relating to Israel’s ground operations and the 140 or so Israeli hostages in his hands. All with the hope that the international community will put strong pressure on Israel to stop the fighting and that he will be saved. He describes the Israeli hostages as his life insurance policy.
Sources in the Gaza Strip believe that once Hamas feels its end is near, it will again propose negotiations for a hostage exchange, something like a full ceasefire and the withdrawal of all troops from Gaza. But that won’t happen. Israel’s security apparatus and the public demand the complete elimination of Hamas. The veto is of course in the hands of the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sinwar doesn’t understand that he missed the train. Circumstances have completely changed and Israel wants to eliminate him and his entire terrorist gang in Khan Yunis. As it stands now, there will be no compromises on the way to victory. Israel’s military decisions in the war in Gaza must be very visible so that the entire Arab world sees Israel’s triumph. This allows Israel to restore its deterrence strategy.
