{"id":109007,"date":"2023-12-02T18:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=109007"},"modified":"2023-12-02T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T15:46:09","slug":"08-00-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=109007","title":{"rendered":"Most Wanted: The Three Hamas Leaders Israel Must Eliminate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Most Wanted: The Three Hamas Leaders Israel Must Eliminate<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to what they say is a tunnel used by Hamas terrorists during a ground operation in a location given as Gaza, in this handout image released Nov. 9, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Israel<\/span>i Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has a poster hanging on a wall of his office in Tel Aviv, in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>by\u00a0Hamas<\/span>. It shows mugshots of hundreds of the Palestinian terrorist group\u2019s commanders arranged in a pyramid.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the bottom are\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 junior field commanders. At the top is its high command, including Mohammed Deif, the shadowy mastermind of last month\u2019s assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

The poster has been re-printed many times after\u00a0Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7 massacre:\u00a0<\/span>the faces of dead commanders marked with a cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>men topping\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s hit-list remain at large: Deif, the head of\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades; his second in command, Marwan Issa; and\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hostilities resumed in Gaza on Friday after a seven-day truce brokered by Qatar collapsed. Reuters spoke to four sources in the region, familiar with\u00a0Israel<\/span>i thinking, who said that\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s offensive in Gaza was unlikely to stop until those\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>top\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>commanders are dead or captured.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 61-year-old Sinwar, as well as Deif and Issa, both 58, form a secretive\u00a0three<\/span>-man military council atop\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>that planned and executed the Oct. 7 attack. Some 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage in that assault, the bloodiest in\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s 75-year history.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>leaders\u00a0<\/span>are directing\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 military operations and led negotiations for a prisoner-hostage swap deal, possibly from bunkers beneath Gaza,\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>Hamas\u00a0<\/span>sources say.<\/span><\/p>\n

Killing or capturing the\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>men will likely be a long and arduous task but might signal that\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>was close to shifting from all-out war to less intense counter insurgency operations, according to\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>of the senior regional sources. That does not mean that\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s fight against\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>would stop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have said\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s objectives are the destruction of\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 military and governmental capabilities, bringing the hostages back, and ensuring that the area around Gaza will never be threatened by a repeat of the Oct. 7 attack. To achieve those goals, eliminating the\u00a0leaders<\/span>hip of\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>will be essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are living on borrowed time,\u201d Gallant told a news conference last week, indicating that\u00a0the Israel<\/span>i intelligence agency Mossad would hunt down the terrorist group\u2019s\u00a0leaders<\/span>hip anywhere in the world. The\u00a0Israel<\/span>i government did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two military experts said that killing Sinwar, Deif, and Issa would allow\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>to claim an important symbolic victory. But achieving even that goal would be long and costly, with no guarantee of success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Backed by drones and aircraft,\u00a0Israel<\/span>i troops have swept through less populated northern and western parts of Gaza but the hardest, and\u00a0most\u00a0<\/span>destructive, phase of the fighting may lie ahead, military experts said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel<\/span>i troops have not pushed deep into Gaza City, stormed the maze of tunnels where\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 command is believed to be located, or invaded the enclave\u2019s densely populated south, they added.\u00a0Some of those tunnels are believed to be around 80 meters deep, making them difficult to destroy from the air.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said it was probably unclear to all sides, including\u00a0Hamas<\/span>, exactly how many of its fighters had been killed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf [Israel]<\/span>\u00a0could say we\u2019ve killed Sinwar, we\u2019ve killed Marwan Issa, we\u2019ve killed Mohammed Deif, that\u2019s a very clear, symbolic and substantive achievement,\u201d Eisenstadt said, adding that\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>faced a dilemma.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they can\u2019t get the guys? Do they keep fighting until they get them? And what if they just prove elusive?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A MORE ATTAINABLE GOAL<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Israel<\/span>i military says it has destroyed around 400 tunnel shafts in northern Gaza, but that is only a small part of the network\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>has built up over the years. At least 70\u00a0Israel<\/span>i soldiers have been killed in the Gaza operation, and some 392 in total, including the Oct. 7 attacks, the\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>Defense Forces (IDF) has said.<\/span><\/p>\n

A military officer, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, estimated roughly around 5,000\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>fighters had been killed \u2014 equivalent to roughly one fifth of its overall strength. Six battalions \u2014 numbering around 1,000 men each \u2014 had been significantly degraded, the officer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>leader, said the casualty figures were false and \u201cIsrael<\/span>i propaganda\u201d to cover its lack of military success.<\/span><\/p>\n

One\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>insider in Gaza, reached by phone, said that destroying the group as a military force would mean house to house combat and fighting in the warren of tunnels beneath the enclave, which would take a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we talk about a year, we will be optimistic,\u201d he said, adding that the\u00a0Israel<\/span>i death toll would rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

US President Joe Biden\u2019s administration sees eliminating\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018\u00a0leaders<\/span>hip as a far more attainable goal for\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>than the country\u2019s stated objective of eliminating\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>entirely,\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>US officials told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n

While staunchly supportive of\u00a0Israel<\/span>, its closest ally in the Middle East, US officials worry that an open-ended conflict driven by\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s hope of destroying\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>entirely would cause a heavy civilian death toll in Gaza and prolong the risk of a regional war.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States learned that lesson over years of battling al Qaeda, Islamic State. and other groups during a two-decade-long global war on terrorism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran-backed terrorists, who blame the United States for\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s bombings in Gaza, are already targeting US troops in Iraq and Syria in wave after wave of attacks. One of the attacks last week injured eight US troops.<\/span><\/p>\n

EXISTENTIAL THREAT<\/span><\/p>\n

The shock and fear in\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>engendered by\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 Oct. 7 attack may make it difficult to de-escalate the conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at\u00a0Israel<\/span>\u2018s Ministry for Strategic Affairs, which counters negative narratives about\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>overseas, said there is strong popular support for the war to continue as\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>is perceived as part of a broad Iran-backed axis that poses a direct threat to the nation\u2019s survival.<\/span><\/p>\n

Capturing Sinwar would be an important victory but not necessarily the ultimate one, Michael said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael<\/span>i society perceives itself under an existential threat and the options it sees before it are two only: To be or not to be,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The objective of the war remains to dismantle\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 military and government capabilities, Michael said, which could involve a turbulent period in Gaza after the war. And the greater long-term challenge was to remove the popular appeal to Palestinians of\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 fierce opposition to\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>using education and outreach, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u00a0<\/span>regularly announces the deaths of senior\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>battalion commanders. An\u00a0Israel<\/span>i military officer, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the IDF viewed the elimination of such combat-level commanders as essential to dismantling\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 military capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

FAILED ASSASSINATIONS<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>Hamas\u00a0<\/span>leaders\u00a0<\/span>have all escaped numerous\u00a0Israel<\/span>i operations to kill them. Deif in particular lives in the shadows after escaping seven assassination attempts before 2021, which cost him an eye and left him with a serious leg injury.<\/span><\/p>\n

An\u00a0Israel<\/span>i air strike in 2014 killed his wife, his\u00a0three<\/span>-year-old daughter, and seven-month-old son.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speculation by\u00a0Israel<\/span>i and Palestinian sources is that the\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>men are hiding in the tunnels under the enclave but five sources close to their thinking say they could be anywhere within Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sinwar, who unlike the elusive Deif and Issa has often appeared in the past at public rallies, is no longer using any electronic devices for fear the\u00a0Israel<\/span>is could track the signal,\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>sources said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Issa, known as the \u201cShadow Man,\u201d is perhaps the least well known of the\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>but has been involved in many of\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018 major decisions of recent years, and would replace either of the two other men if they are killed or captured,\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>sources said.<\/span><\/p>\n

All\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>men were born into refugee families that had fled or been expelled in 1948 from areas in the newly created\u00a0Israel<\/span>i state.<\/span><\/p>\n

And all\u00a0three\u00a0<\/span>men have spent years in\u00a0Israel<\/span>i prisons. Sinwar served 22 years after being jailed in 1988 for the abduction and killing of two\u00a0Israel<\/span>i soldiers and the murder of four Palestinian collaborators.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was the\u00a0most\u00a0<\/span>senior of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners that\u00a0Israel\u00a0<\/span>freed in 2011 in exchange for one of its soldiers, Gilad Shalit, captured by\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>in a cross-border raid five years earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Deif, Issa\u2019s facial features were unknown to the public until 2011 when he appeared in a group photo taken during the Shalit prisoner\u2019s exchange, which he helped to organize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerhard Conrad, a German Intelligence Agency mediator (BND) from 2009 to 2011, was among the few to have met Issa while negotiating Shalit\u2019s prisoner swap.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a very meticulous and careful analyst: that\u2019s my impression of him. He knew the files by heart,\u201d Conrad told Al Jazeera television.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u00a0<\/span>has killed\u00a0Hamas<\/span>\u2018\u00a0leaders\u00a0<\/span>in the past, including the group\u2019s founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and its former leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi, assassinated in a 2004 air strike. New commanders rose to fill their ranks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u00a0<\/span>has killed Sheikh Yassin, Rantissi and others but\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>is not over,\u201d said Hamdan, the Lebanon-based member of the group\u2019s politburo. \u201cAnything might happen in this battle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Most Wanted: The Three Hamas Leaders Israel Must Eliminate Reuters and Algemeiner Staff Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to what they say is a tunnel used by Hamas terrorists during a ground operation in a location given as Gaza, in this handout image released Nov. 9, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces Israeli Defense Minister Yoav […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109007"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109026,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109007\/revisions\/109026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}