A recent Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza may have succeeded in eliminating not just the Gaza-based Hamas chief, Mohammed Sinwar, but also several other high-ranking terrorists, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The Israeli strike, in early March, reportedly struck an underground bunker where Mohammed Sinwar and several of his top henchmen had assembled for a meeting. “The Israeli airstrike that targeted Hamas’s Gaza chief this month hit him as he attended a meeting of the group’s highest ranking militants, killing several important operatives and leaving a void in its top leadership,” the business daily wrote, quoting Hamas and official Arab sources.
Mohammed Sinwar had been elevated to the position of Hamas’ overall ‘military chief’ after his elder brother and top Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was taken out by the Israeli military in the terrorist stronghold of Rafah seven months ago.
The news report comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel had ‘apparently’ eliminated Mohammed Sinwar. “We eliminated the leaders of the murderers Deif, Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and it appears we also eliminated Mohammed Sinwar,” he assured at a press conference on Wednesday.
The WSJ reported:
The Israeli airstrike that targeted Hamas’s Gaza chief this month hit him as he attended a meeting of the group’s highest ranking militants, killing several important operatives and leaving a void in the top leadership of the U.S.-designated terrorist group, Hamas and Arab officials said.The airstrike killed Mohammed Sinwar, who was quietly buried days later, along with other top militants including Mohammad Shabana, the commander of the group’s Rafah brigade, the officials said.The Hamas leaders had gathered in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to discuss matters including their approach to cease-fire talks with Israel when they were hit, the officials said. The meeting went against Hamas’s wartime security protocols and created an opening for Israel to hit several high-value targets at once. (…)The precision and timing of the latest attack demonstrated Israel’s significant intelligence capability, the officials said. Sinwar was known to be very particular about keeping a low profile, and only a handful of people usually knew about his movements or how to contact him, they said. He operated largely behind the scenes, earning him the nickname “Shadow,” the Arab officials said.Hamas found Sinwar’s body a day after the strike and buried it in a temporary grave in another tunnel after his family was informed, the officials said, confirming Israeli claims that he was likely dead. Hamas plans to move Sinwar’s body to a proper burial site once the fighting stops, the officials said.(…)Hamas hasn’t confirmed Sinwar’s death, in part because the group’s leadership is figuring out who takes over in the war-torn strip, the officials said.
The precision strike was carried out on a ‘rare’ occasion when Muhammad Sinwar was not surrounded by hostages, Israeli media reports say. Sinwar and other Hamas leaders use hostages as human shields in a bid to deter Israel from targeting them.
The Times of Israel reported Saturday, quoting Israel’s Channel 12 TV network:
The strike that targeted and possibly eliminated Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar in Gaza earlier this month was made possible when the terror chief made the rare mistake of moving without a defensive “hostage belt” protecting him, according to a Friday report.Channel 12 aired new details on the massive strike on Sinwar and other top Hamas officials in a Khan Younis tunnel on May 13 that is currently believed to have killed Sinwar, the de facto commander of Hamas in Gaza, following Israel’s killing of his brother Yahya last October.The network said Muhammad Sinwar was almost always surrounded by hostages throughout the war, as Hamas leaders realized this was a strong deterrent against Israeli assassination attempts. And indeed, Channel 12 said Israeli intelligence had long tracked Sinwar but repeatedly ruled out potential strikes on him when presented with the opportunity due to fears there were hostages in his vicinity.
As Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ entered its 20th day, the IDF continues operational activities all across Gaza. Besides targeting Hamas’ command structure, Israeli troops were locating and dismantling terrorist infrastructure. The operation is seen as the IDF’s final offensive to destroy Hamas’ jihadist fighting force and free the remaining hostages, as the Gaza-based terror group refuses to negotiate.
“During IDF activity over the past day as part of Operation “Gideons’ Chariots,” troops eliminated terrorists in the area and dismantled booby-trapped military structures, terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground, and anti-tank missile posts used by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a press release Saturday.
Israeli fighter jets hit more than 100 terror targets in the past 24 hours. “Additionally, the IAF struck over 100 targets throughout the Gaza Strip over the past day. Among the targets struck were terrorists from the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, military structures, underground routes, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites,” the military disclosed.
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