‘Sinwar Insists’: Hamas Leader Reportedly Wants Guarantee in Gaza Ceasefire Deal He Won’t Be Assassinated

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wants a guarantee he won’t be assassinated by Israel included in a hostage and ceasefire deal, even as he sacrifices Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to reports.

A senior Egyptian official told Ynet that Sinwar, the mastermind of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, wants to be protected from the prospect of an Israeli assassination as a condition of agreeing to a deal that would return Israeli hostages who Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7 and implement a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Sinwar insists on guarantees for his safety and life,” the official said.

In recent months, Israel has taken out numerous top Hamas and Hezbollah officials in Gaza and Lebanon. The other two top Hamas leaders prior to Oct. 7 — Ismail Haniyeh on the political side and Mohammed Deif on the military side — were both recently killed.

Deif was killed in a large-scale Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in the room in which he was sleeping while visiting Tehran for the new Iranian president’s inauguration. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the explosion.

Sinwar, who had been Hamas’ chief in Gaza, was picked to succeed Haniyeh as the terrorist group’s overall leader

The second highest-ranking member of Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, was also killed last month. He played an instrumental role in the murder of about 300 American and French soldiers in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983.

Amid these high-profile assassinations, Sinwar likely sensed he was a target and made efforts to secure his own safety — efforts he has not made for the people of Gaza.

In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that central to Sinwar’s political calculations in the war has been the fact that Palestinian civilian casualties help Hamas and its war effort. “These are necessary sacrifices,” he reportedly said.

Sinwar has appeared to recognize that as war between Israel and Hamas drags on, Western perceptions of the Jewish state tend to plummet. In 2018, he told the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth that, in a war, “For [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, a victory would be even worse than a defeat.” The reason was that it may result in the occupation of 2 million people who live in the enclave.

Meanwhile, throughout the current war, which began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took another 251 hostages during an invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas has embedded its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeered civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Additionally, Hamas has used humanitarian aid to help it prop up rockets, and its fighters are usually wearing civilian clothing in the propaganda videos it releases to the public.

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