By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
October 7th, mastermind Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s location is only known by two or three people.
The newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports that just a few people know Sinwar’s location to provide for his needs and keep him informed of developments on the war with Israel and hostage negotiations.
One source said, “A very small circle [of people] know his location.”
Those who know where Sinwar is amount to “no more than two or three people, who provide for his various needs and maintain his communication with the other leaders of the movement.”
The source added, “The occupation will not manage to reach many of the first- and second-tier Hamas leaders, but it has tried to assassinate some of them. Some were injured and some survived without injury following the bombing of various areas.”
The report also claimed that the Hamas chief is mulling accepting a deal with Israel to end the current war – or to continue the conflict and die fighting Israel.
“Sinwar is thinking of two options,” one source said. “Either fulfilling the conditions of the resistance in stopping the war, withdrawing the occupation forces, and completing an honorable exchange deal, or obtaining the honor of martyrdom.”
The sources called Sinwar a “stubborn negotiator,” adding that his years in Israeli prisons, prior to his release in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit deal, provide him insight into “how Israeli leaders think.”
Sinwar “manages many aspects of the battle politically.”
In June, The New York Post, Colin Clarke, a member of the New York-based Soufan Group and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, said that Sinwar is “likely still in Gaza, deep within the tunnel network and surrounded by hostages to secure his safety.”
Clarke compared Sinwar to a “cornered rat” hiding out from his enemies.
US officials speculated that he was still in a tunnel in Khan Younis.
In February, a video was released during which Sinwar could be seen walking through tunnels in Khan Younis with what appear to be family members and possibly hostages used as human shields.
