Israel sets sights on ‘bin Laden of Gaza’
Nowhere in the world will be safe for Hamas’ leadership, with Israel planning to kill the terror group’s kingpins across the globe,including the man dubbed ‘the bin Laden of Gaza’
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Nowhere in the world will be safe for Hamas’ leadership, with Israel planning to kill the terror group’s kingpins across the globe when the conflict in the Middle East winds down, including the man dubbed ‘the bin Laden of Gaza’.
Working on orders from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s top intelligence agencies are putting together plans to continue to hunt down Hamas’ leaders living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and abroad in countries including Lebanon, Turkey and Iran.
Israel’s spy agencies have a long history of hunting down and assassinating terror leaders who have committed acts against the Jewish state.
One of the more famous cases was highlighted in director Stephen Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich starring Aussie actor Eric Bana, which tells the story of “Operation Wrath of God” which carried out the killings of 11 terrorist in retaliation for the hostage-taking and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics.
At the top of Israel’s list will be the Hamas leader dubbed “the bin Laden of Gaza”, Yahya Sinwar, who helped to mastermind the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Sinwar, who borrows his moniker from the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, Osama bin Laden, has spent 22 years in prison in Israel for terrorist murder and kidnap plots.
He is the founder of Hamas’ military wing and its intelligence service and has been the leader of the terror group in Gaza since 2017
Israel has vowed to find and kill Sinwar and has said its renewed offensive will not end until he is dead.
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He is believed to be hiding in a Hamas command centre underneath a hospital in the Gaza Strip. However there are suspicions he could or will flee to Egypt.
Either way Israel is determined to kill him.
Speaking about Sinwar on Saturday, Netanyahu said he was acting like a “little Hitler in a bunker” and said “he has no care for his people”.
Israel Defence Forces spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht compared Sinwar to al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden for his role in the Hamas atrocities.
“Yahya Sinwar is the face of evil. He is the mastermind behind this, like Bin Laden was [with the 9/11 US attacks],” Lt Col Hecht said.
The Israelis have urged Gazans to kill or hand over the Sinwar themselves as this would “hasten the end to the war”.
Israel has killed dozens of Hamas leader since it began its attacks on the Gaza Strip following the October 7 atrocity.
Two other Hamas leaders high on Israel’s hit list are Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades and another key planner of the October 7 attacks and his second in command, Marwan Issa.
Hamas opened its political bureau in Doha, Qatar a decade ago and other Hamas leaders are believed to be living there.
‘MOTHER OF ALL THUMPINGS’ AS HAMAS TERROR BLUEPRINT REVEALED
As “the mother of all thumpings” was unleashed on Gaza, it was revealed Israel obtained Hamas’s October 7 terror plan more than a year earlier but dismissed the blueprint as “aspirational” and too difficult to pull off.
A fragile week-long truce ended with a rocket barrage fired toward Israel, more than 200 terror targets hit in Gaza, and Hamas claims of more than 100 were killed since the end of the ceasefire.
The return of hostilities was a “hard blow” for families of the 137 hostages that remained in Gaza, with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowing to remain “intensely focused” on their release.
“It’s important to understand why the pause came to an end – it came to an end because of Hamas,” Blinken said.
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HAMAS VIOLATED TRUCE TERMS: ISRAEL
Hamas violated the terms of the agreement by refusing to release 10 female hostages and instead seeking to free male captives, according to three Israeli officials speaking to the Walla news site.
Israel says Hamas broke the truce after Mossad warned fighting would resume if the remaining 17 women and children hostages were not released.
Two officials claimed Hamas wanted to extract better terms for their release, while another said the women were being held to prevent them speaking publicly about what they endured in captivity.
THE MOTHER OF ALL THUMPINGS UNLEASHED
Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for a missile barrage fired at Tel Aviv, but no damage was reported by the Israeli military. Hezbollah, meanwhile, launched attacks on Israel’s northern border.
In response, the IDF struck a terror cell in southern Lebanon and launched air strikes in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, which resident Mohammad Ghalayini described as “near constant”.
“Every 10-15 minutes there have been strikes,” he told NBC News. “It’s been all around us.”
Israel dropped leaflets ordering residents to move further south to the border city of Rafah, with spokesperson Eylon Levy adding that Hamas would “now take the mother of all thumpings” for failing to release the remaining women and children held captive.
HOSTAGES REUNITE WITH FAMILY, DEAD OR ALIVE
While some of the freed hostages, like 21-year-old Mia Shem, were reunited with family, others like 27-year-old Ofir Tzarfati were found dead. Tzarfati was captured at the Nova festival on October 7 and was held in the Gaza Strip until his remains were found by a joint force of the IDF and Shin Bet.
Kibbutz Nir Oz announced three of its residents taken hostage died in captivity, naming Aryeh Zalmanovich, 85, the oldest captive, Maya Goren, 56, a kindergarten teacher, and Ronen Engel, 54, whose wife and two daughters were returned to Israel earlier this week.
Israeli officials obtained the 40-page blueprint for “Al-Aqsa Flood” more than a year before Hamas swept past the Israeli border, into villages like Kibbutz Nir Oz and through the music festival.
ISRAEL OBTAINED OCTOBER 7 PLAN A YEAR EARLIER
According to documents, emails and interviews gathered by The New York Times, Israeli authorities dismissed the Hamas battle plan as “aspirational” and too difficult for the terror group to pull off.
The translated document, codenamed “Jericho Wall” by Israel intelligence, did not set a specific date but described in detail the plan to storm Israel by land, sea and air, which Hamas followed “with shocking precision”.
The document was widely shared among Israel’s military and intelligence leaders, who assessed that “It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested”.
It was unclear if the “Jericho Wall” terror blueprint, which has not been independently verified, reached the desk of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Netyanhau said Israel forces were “charging forward” after the end of the ceasefire, while Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said, “Hamas only understands force”.
“Last night … I approved the continuation of the IDF offensive. This morning, we all saw the meaning of the strikes,” he said.
“I watched the attacks and saw their intensity from the cockpit of an Air Force combat helicopter over the Gaza Strip.
US ‘FOCUSED’ ON HOSTAGES DESPITE RENEWED HOSTILITIES
The United States remains “intensely focused” on freeing hostages held in Gaza despite the resumption of the Israel-Hamas war after a week-long truce, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“We remained intensely focused on getting everyone home, getting hostages back, something that I also worked on,” he said, after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Dubai.
Blinken met with the top diplomats of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain during his brief visit to Dubai, as well as a representative of the Palestinian Authority.
“We’re determined to do everything we can to get everyone reunited with their families, including pursuing the process that had worked for seven days,” Blinken said, saying the work was continuing “almost hour by hour”.
‘HARD BLOW’ FOR FAMILIES AS TRUCE ENDS
The families of hostages still being held in Gaza said the end of a truce that saw 80 kidnapped Israelis freed was a “very hard blow” to bear.
Under an agreement between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel, the hostages were being released at a rate of 10 each day, forcing the families to endure an agonising waiting game.
But as the pause in the conflict ended early Friday, there was bitter disappointment for the families of those still not freed.
“We saw a chance for people to come out, be reunited with their families and resume their old lives,” said Ilan Zharia, the uncle of 20-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, one of the women not to have been released.
ISRAEL STRIKES 200 TARGETS
The Israeli military said that it had hit “over 200 terror targets” after the end of a truce pausing fighting between it and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Over the last few hours, ground, air and naval forces struck terror targets in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, including in Khan Yunis and Rafah,” it said in a statement
HAMAS BREAKS CEASEFIRE
War resumed with the truce deadline allowed to expire and Hamas accused by Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement by firing a rocket into their territory.
Heavy fighting was reported across the embattled territory.
“Amid the return to combat, we stress the government of Israel is committed to achieving the goals of the war — releasing our hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza can never again threaten the people of Israel,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declared.
The Israel Defense Force was forced to shoot down a projectile fired from Gaza toward Israeli communities close to Sderot, an hour before the truce was due to expire.
As the 7am (local time) deadline loomed, witnesses then reported aircraft and drones overhead before a series of explosions and sporadic gunfire and a further rocket intercepted close to the Israeli community of Holis.
The ceasefire was allowed to pass with no word of an extension before the IDF issued a statement declaring combat resumed and accusing Hamas of violating the temporary ceasefire.
The IDF also said Hamas had not provided a list of hostages it was prepared to release before the deadline as it confirmed Israeli fighter jets were carrying out “a wave of air strikes” against targets.
A source close to Hamas told AFP the group’s armed wing had received “the order to resume combat” and to “defend the Gaza Strip”, with heavy fighting reported in parts of Gaza City.
The pause in fighting began on November 24, initially for four days, then extended for several more days and was expected to go into the weekend with initial agreement, via negotiators from Qatar and Egypt, between parties.
Within an hour of the truce ending, heavy fighting was reported across Gaza, social media posts showed huge plumes of smoke over Gaza City and air strikes reported in southern Gaza, east of Khan Yunis and in Rafah where several people were reported killed.
HAS HUMANITY GIVEN UP ON CHILDREN OF GAZA?: AUSSIE AID WORKER
Australian veteran humanitarian aid worker James Elder has filmed himself in “the biggest, still functioning hospital in Gaza”, where they heard bombs going off not far from the medical facility.
“It is at 200 per cent capacity. Yes, this is a hospital. The health system here is overwhelmed. This hospital simply cannot take more children,” he said in a video shared on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
With the ceasefire over, he asked; “has humanity given up on the children of Gaza?”.
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Ceasefire over in #Gaza. Attacks v near this hospital. Bombing consistent. Has humanity given up on the children of Gaza?! 😔 pic.twitter.com/dsyvQeBEWx
— James Elder (@1james_elder) December 1, 2023
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