Israel vows to kill the Hamas mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks, dubbed “Bin Laden of Gaza.”
ISRAEL has vowed to find and kill Yahya Sinwar – the Hamas instigator of the October 7 attacks, dubbed “Gaza’s Bin Laden”.
Sinwar, 61, is believed to be hiding in a Hamas command and control center beneath a hospital in the Gaza Strip.
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Yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described him as a “little Hitler in the bunker” and added: “He doesn’t care about his people.”
And Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht compared him to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for his role in Hamas atrocities.
Lt. Col. Hecht said: “Yahya Sinwar is the face of evil. He is the mastermind behind it, just like Bin Laden [with the 9/11 US attacks].”
The Israelis called on Gazans to kill or hand over the bogeyman themselves, saying this would “accelerate the end of the war.”
Sinwar, the founder of Hamas’s military wing and intelligence service, has been the terror group’s leader in Gaza since 2017.
When the IDF began its hunt for him after Hamas’s killings in Israel last month, it released an earlier video in which he told his followers: “From us here in Gaza they will never get anything but guns and fire.” You will never get anything but death and killing.”
Sinwar was born in a refugee camp and was captured in 1989 for the murder of two Israeli soldiers and sentenced to 426 years in prison.
He was the most prominent of more than 1,000 terror prisoners released in 2011 as part of a swap deal to secure the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Nearly 300 people were serving life sentences for attacks on Israel and many were believed to have taken part in the Hamas massacre planned by Sinwar.
His whereabouts are a closely guarded secret, but he could be at the terror group’s main Gaza base under Al-Shifa Hospital, from where the attacks were planned.
The IDF has already killed Hamas’s deputy intelligence chief, who helped plan the attacks and promised to eliminate Sinwar.
Hamas threat
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “At the end of the war there will be no more Hamas.”
He added: “Twelve Hamas battalion commanders were killed and we will reach out to all of them and all terrorists in the field.”
“The Hamas leadership is responsible. We’re going to get to that guide. We will reach Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him. If the people of Gaza get there before us, it will shorten the war.”
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Israel yesterday to show his support for the country.
Mr Johnson described Hamas’s atrocities as “the worst massacre of Jewish people we have seen since the Second World War”.
He added: “It is absolutely important that we who believe in Israel do everything we can to show our support in the face of cruel, inhumane attacks on innocent people.” Israel has the right to defend itself .”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his tour of the Middle East, making an unannounced visit to the West Bank, which has been plagued by violence since the start of the war.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed there in daily clashes with Israeli police and troops.
He met with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, which rules much of the West Bank, and the two discussed efforts to “restore calm and stability” in the region.
Mr Blinken then traveled to Cyprus and from there will travel to Turkey – which has been critical of Israel’s response to the Hamas massacre.
Ceasefire calls
Pope Francis has called for a ceasefire and the release of the 242 hostages held by Hamas.
In a post on
“In God’s name I ask you to stop this – stop using guns.
“I hope that steps will be taken to ensure that an escalation of the conflict can be avoided at all costs. Release the hostages immediately. Let’s think about the children, all the children affected by this war.”
But Mr Netanyahu again rejected the idea of a delay until the hostages were released.
He said: “Without the return of the hostages there will be no ceasefire.”
An Israeli junior minister has been suspended after he said dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was “one of the options” in the war.
Amihai Eliyahu made the claim in a radio interview but later backtracked, saying that “any reasonable person would understand that the comment was metaphorical.”
Read more on the Irish Sun
The Hamas-run Health Ministry claims nearly 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began.
Around 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered in the Hamas terrorist attack.
Gun sales are booming
By Robin Perrie
Gun sales in Israel are soaring as families brace themselves against another terrorist massacre.
Shooting ranges are crowded as people sign up for courses that qualify them to carry a sidearm.
And the number of applications for weapons licenses has risen 1,500 percent to 150,000 since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,400 people.
I visited a gun shop in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where 16 guns were on display.
Prices for a Heckler & Koch P30 semi-automatic handgun started at £600 and rose to £1,200.
Shop owner Yair Yaifrach, 58, said it was the busiest he had ever been in his 24 years there.
I saw a stream of customers buying £500 worth of guns, ammunition and bulletproof vests.
Mr Yaifrach said: “People are scared and want to protect their families.”
Among the potential gun owners trained at a shooting range was 44-year-old politician Limor Son Har-Melech.
She bears the scar of a terrorist attack 20 years ago in which her husband was shot.
She said: “Civilians must be armed. Every woman must take responsibility to protect her family. That means knowing how to fire a weapon.”