The survival of Hamas’s most senior Gaza official regarded as emblematic of the failures of Israel’s war on Gaza
Yahia Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, waves to supporters during a rally marking in Gaza City in 2022. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images, Israel i leaders described the group’s most senior official in the territory, Yahya Sinwar, as a “dead man walking”.
Damaged and destroyed cars in the car park of an apartment complex in Ashkelon, Israel, on October 7th, 2023. Photograph: Tamir Kalifa/New York Times For Israeli and western officials, Sinwar has over the course of these negotiations, which stalled again in Cairo this past week, emerged as both a brutal adversary and a deft political operator, capable of analysing Israeli society and appearing to adapt his policies accordingly.
While in prison, Sinwar learned Hebrew and developed an understanding of Israeli culture and society, according to fellow former inmates and Israeli officials who monitored him in prison. Sinwar now appears to be using that knowledge to sow divisions in Israeli society and heighten pressure on Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, according to Israeli and US officials.
Israeli and US intelligence officers say that Sinwar’s strategy is to keep the war going for as long as it takes to shred Israel’s international reputation and to damage its relationship with its primary ally, the United States. As Israel faced intense pressure to avoid launching an operation in Rafah, Hamas fired rockets last week from Rafah toward a nearby border crossing, killing four Israeli soldiers.
US officials say that Sinwar has shown disdain for his colleagues outside Gaza, who were not informed about the precise plans for Hamas’s attack on October 7th. US officials also believe that Sinwar approves military operations conducted by Hamas, although Israeli intelligence officers say they are unsure of the extent of his involvement.
Some say that if Sinwar has played a bigger role during this war, it is mostly because of his position: As the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Sinwar has greater say, although not the final call, according to Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official based in Qatar.
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