"Osama bin Laden of Gaza" is said to be in Chan Junis
The city of Chan Junis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip is already surrounded. It is now clear that the Israeli army is apparently targeting Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar. As the planner of the massacre in Israel on October 7, he is at the top of the hit list.
Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar has so far managed to evade attacks by the Israeli military. Sinwar, who was responsible for the terrorist attack on October 7, fled the northern Gaza Strip at the beginning of the fighting by hiding in a humanitarian convoy. This was reported by the Israeli broadcaster Kan TV, citing an Israeli official familiar with the details. The 61-year-old was traveling south and is now in Chan Junis.
According to the report, Sinwar is said to be in one of the tunnels under the city. According to Israeli troops, they have already surrounded Chan Junis. Residents there reported tank shells and fierce firefights between the Israeli forces and Hamas during the night, as well as a series of airstrikes.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that terrorists and Hamas commanders who had surrendered had said that their fighters were in a "difficult situation" and that the Hamas leadership under Sinwar was "denying reality". None of these statements can be independently verified.
Mastermind of the massacre
In Israel, Sinwar is compared to the former leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, Osama bin Laden - in reference to the mastermind of the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. The Hamas leader in Gaza is at the top of the army's hit list. Born in 1962 in a refugee camp in Chan Junis, Sinwar, together with Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas' armed wing, is considered the planner of the unprecedented massacre on October 7, as a result of which around 1200 Israelis were killed and around 240 people were deported to Gaza.
Sinwar, a wiry, bearded man with cropped white hair and deep-set eyes under bushy dark brows, belongs to the founding generation of Hamas. In the early years of the Islamist movement, he was responsible for fighting suspected collaborators with Israel within its own ranks. His actions were so brutal that he became known as the "Butcher of Chan Junis". He spent more than two decades in Israeli custody for the murder of four suspected collaborators and two Israeli soldiers. He used this time to learn Hebrew and study the enemy.
Sinwar was released in 2011 - as one of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. In the same year, Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan. Like him, Israel's government assures us, Sinwar is also a doomed man.
Sinwar not the only leading figure
After Israeli soldiers surrounded the Gaza chief's house in Chan Junis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening that Jihia al-Sinwar could escape, "but it is only a matter of time before we find him". However, even if the Israeli army were to track down and kill Sinwar, this would not necessarily mean that it would bring down Hamas, Harel Chorev from the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University told the US broadcaster CNN. The reason for this is that although Sinwar has a key role within Hamas, he is not the only leading figure.
"Hamas can still be overthrown even if Sinwar remains alive," said Chorev. This would require the destruction of a "critical mass" of power centers. Sinwar is just one of these centers. The daily newspaper "Jediot Achronot" wrote on Friday that Israel had not yet reached the point where Hamas had said "enough". This could happen with the killing of people like Sinwar or Deif, "but it hasn't happened yet". Only by the army maintaining military pressure in Sinwar's hometown of Chan Junis could Hamas be persuaded to make another deal to release more hostages, the paper wrote.
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The Israeli army continues its operations in the Gaza Strip, specifically targeting the Gaza Strip city of Chan Junis, where Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar is reportedly hiding. Sinwar, known for his role in the October 7 massacre, has been a thorn in Israel's side for years, leading to comparisons with Osama bin Laden.
Despite being surrounded by the Israeli military, Sinwar's whereabouts within the city's tunnels remain uncertain. Meanwhile, tensions persist in the area, with resonating tank shells and airstrikes reported by residents during the night.
Source: www.ntv.de
