The U.S. effort to pressure Hamas to agree to a newly-backed ceasefire proposal by the U.N. Security Council has put the spotlight on the armed group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to have been in hiding in the Strip throughout the war and is a key figure in the group’s decision-making.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting in Tel Aviv on Tuesday Visited many countries in the Middle EastThe onus is now on Mr Sinwar to accept the new US ceasefire proposal. The Security Council voted successfully On Monday, Blinken said rejecting the deal would put Sinwar’s political interests ahead of those of civilians.
Blinken said Hamas may be “taking care of someone,” referring to Sinwar.
Mr. Sinwar was the mastermind of the October 7 Israeli attack, which killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages. U.S. and Israeli officials, who have spent months assessing Sinwar’s motives, say he knew the invasion would provoke an Israeli military response that would kill many civilians but believed it was a price worth paying to upend the status quo with Israel.
Mr. Sinwar has refused to agree to any further ceasefire since Hamas agreed to a brief ceasefire late last year that exchanged more than 100 hostages in Gaza and more Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. More than 36,000 people have died in Gaza during the Hamas-Israel military campaign. Eight months According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the war has left some 80,000 people injured, with most of the dead being women, children and the elderly.
Sinwar’s position is not the only question mark in the negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also not publicly expressed his acceptance of the Security Council-approved proposal and is under pressure from far-right coalition partners not to end the war until Hamas is destroyed. Blinken said Tuesday that Netanyahu “reaffirmed” his commitment to the plan during private talks in Jerusalem.
U.S. officials said last month that Mr. Sinwar Probably living in a tunnel Located beneath the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, which has been devastated by Israeli airstrikes and fighting. Hamas has built a network of tunnels beneath Gaza to protect the group from Israeli surveillance and attacks.
Israeli officials say killing Sinwar, who has not appeared in public since Oct. 7, is a priority, no matter how long it takes. He has also not released audio or video messages.
The public silence makes it hard to gauge his thinking and the extent of his control over Hamas, some of whose political leaders are based in Qatar, but Israeli and American officials say Mr. Sinwar remains central to the group’s decision-making.
