Just after the attacks of October 7 and the capture of hundreds of hostages, Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the operation and leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, chose to visit the Israeli soldiers taken prisoner. The conversation takes place entirely in Hebrew. No wonder, Yahya Sinwar perfectly masters the language of his enemy. The leader of Hamas had time to learn it.
He spent a total of twenty-two years in Israeli jails, before being exchanged in October 2011 against the Franco-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, along with a thousand Palestinian detainees. Since then, Sinwar has been hiding at the bottom of a tunnel most of the time. As a result of Israeli intervention, his hometown of Khan Younes is nothing more than a pile of ashes. Sinwar is accustomed to the contingencies of clandestine life, and even if his situation has become critical, it in no way prevents him from continuing to lead his movement, as proven by the American daily Wall Street Journalwho published his correspondence.
Documents in the form of various letters which shed new light on the motivations of the leader of Hamas. In particular, they provide the beginnings of an explanation of the systematic sabotage by the terrorist group of negotiations to free the hostages, an attitude which exasperates the Americans and all the countries involved.
Sinwar’s end goal appears to be a permanent ceasefire
For months, in fact, Yahya Sinwar has refused a ceasefire agreement and the exchange of prisoners which would not include the end of the war and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza. A scenario that would allow Hamas to remain in power. “Sinwar’s ultimate goal appears to be to secure a permanent ceasefire that allows Hamas to declare a historic victory by outlasting Israel and claim leadership of the Palestinian cause.”writes the American weekly.
“We got the Israelis where we wanted them to be”, he wrote in one of these letters, even if he admits to having thought that Benjamin Netanyahu would negotiate for the release of the hostages. In an earlier message, he explained to his troops that “Israel’s trip to Rafah would not be a walk in the park”. The promise was kept. In seven months, Hamas has certainly retreated, but it is still able to fight and hit Israel with rockets. But it is above all his vision of civilian losses that sends shivers down the spine.
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It follows exactly the words of Osama bin Laden, who declared in an interview given in 1997 to Peter Arnett of CNN: “Dying God’s way is an honor desired by those in my community who are struggling. We love death as much as you love life. We fear nothing, we hope for such a death. » In a letter to the international representatives of Hamas based in Doha, Qatar, Ismaël Haniyeh and Khaled Mechaal, Sinwar explains that the deaths in Gaza are “necessary sacrifices”.
And in a letter dated April 11 addressed to Ismaël Haniyeh following the death of three of his sons, he writes that these martyrs “breath life into the veins of this nation, pushing it to rise to its glory and honor.”
“ We have the capacity to continue fighting for months »
We also learn that he is disappointed by the refusal of Iran and Hezbollah, since October 7, to enter into a more head-on war with Israel. He is furious at the role of other Arab countries in carrying out “shameful and scandalous talks”. Translate: they are negotiating with other Palestinian factions that would take control of Gaza after the war, and he is not part of the equation. “As long as the combatants are still standing,” he wrote, “and we have not lost the war, such contacts must cease immediately. We have the capacity to continue fighting for months. »
Yahya Sinwar, however, remains very aware of the risk of eliminating Hamas. He also says he is ready to die in this fight which, if it does not end in victory, will be for him a “new Karbala”. This reference to the founding battle of the Shiite religion is astonishing for a Sunni like him. Sunni radicals consider Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, relived each year by the faithful during the Ashura festival, as a division of Islam. These are dark hours in its history. But if Yahya Sinwar invokes it, it is above all an implicit way of saying to his best ally, Iran: do not abandon us.
