Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar did not expect Israel’s retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack to be “so dangerous,” a friend said.
Yahya Sinwar’s calculations on the effect of the deadly Hamas incursion into Israel on Black Saturday “did not go as planned,” and considered that the Israelis’ reaction was “uncontrolled, without any justification,” according to Esmat Mansour, friend of the terrorist leader.
Mansour, who was once locked up in an Israeli prison with Sinwar, told Sky News that his terrorist friend’s plan was miscalculated and gave Israel an excuse to unleash hellfire on the Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
Mansour said: “I did not expect that the operation would complicate things so much and go so far and become so dangerous and gave Israel every reason and excuse to break all the rules.”
Sinwar’s plan was to use the massacre to help free his friend from prison and turn him into another Hamas leader, as well as lift the “Israeli siege” on the area.
Mansour told Sky News that his terrorist friend’s plan was miscalculated and gave Israel an excuse to unleash hellfire.
Smoke rises after Israeli bombings in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.
Street vendors are seen selling what little food and essential items they have left on the streets as Palestinians struggle with the rising cost of living due to Israeli attacks on Gaza City.
The 61-year-old Hamas chief is one behind supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The high-ranking terrorist, who speaks fluent Hebrew, spent two decades in prison before being freed in 2011 in a hostage deal.
Sinwar was one of 1,000 prisoners in an Israeli prison who were released back to Palestine in exchange for a single Israeli soldier: Gilad Shalit.
Shalit had been captured by Hamas in 2006 when he was 19 years old and spent five years in captivity.
He was the first hostage soldier sent alive to Israel since 1985.
Yahya Sinwar, Palestinian leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, second left, holds a boy dressed as a soldier, on stage with a gun for the cameras.
The October 7 massacre in Israel perpetrated by Hamas during a musical event left 1,200 victims
The IDF recently released images purportedly showing Sinwar escaping through the tunnels.
Palestinians pray at a mosque damaged after an Israeli attack in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to the Financial timesIsrael says Sinwar is a “dead man walking,” if only they could find him.
The IDF recently released a video that they claim shows the terrorist leader being led through a tunnel along with a woman and three children three days after the massacre.
The black and white images, reportedly taken on October 10, show a man, believed to be Sinwar, being led through a tunnel along with a woman and three children, and are said to be the first of him since the war broke out. between Israel and Hamas.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops had discovered the video on a security camera during an operation in a tunnel, without giving further details about the location.
“The images show Hamas leader and mass murderer Yahya Sinwar fleeing with his children and one of his wives,” he said at a briefing.
‘Thus he escaped with his family from an underground tunnel to a secure complex he had previously built.
‘This Sinwar video is the result of our search. This hunt will not end until we have captured him dead or alive.
The authenticity of the video has not been independently verified.
People watch as others search for victims in the rubble of a burning building, following an Israeli attack in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Fire and smoke erupt after Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City
It was not clear from the images where the tunnel was located, but in recent weeks the Israeli army has attacked Khan Yunis, the main city in southern Gaza and Sinwar’s hometown.
Earlier this month, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sinwar was “moving from hideout to hideout” and was no longer leading the group’s military operations in Gaza.
“He has now become a terrorist fleeing from being the leader of Hamas” in the Palestinian territory, Gallant said, without elaborating on Sinwar’s alleged current location.
Sinwar joined Hamas when Sheikh Ahmad Yassin founded the group in 1987, around the start of the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against the Israeli occupation.
The militant ascetic, known for his secrecy, has not been seen since October 7.
Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht has since called Sinwar the “face of evil” and declared him a “living dead man.”
But Israeli forces in Gaza have failed to locate any of Hamas’ top leaders.