Israel probing whether Yahya Sinwar killed in Gaza; no Hamas comment
- Israeli army says it is investigating whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza. There has been no comment from Hamas.
- Israeli attack kills at least 28 Palestinians, including children, and wounds 160 at UNRWA school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.
Gaza’s media office condemns Israeli attack on school
Gaza’s media office condemned Israel’s attack on the Abu Hussein school for displaced Palestinians in Jabalia, which killed at least 28 people.
“We condemn the Israeli occupation’s commission of this new massacre against civilians, children and women, and we call on all countries of the world to condemn these ongoing crimes against the displaced, civilians, children and women,” the media office said.
It added in a statement on Telegram that they hold Israel and the US administration “fully responsible” for the attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The attack on the school increased the number of shelters and displacement centres targeted by Israel to 192 since the war began more than a year ago.
The attack also comes alongside the collapse of the health situation in the north of Gaza, where about 400,000 people live
Hamas will have to ‘regroup’ if Sinwar assassinated: Analyst
Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says if the unconfirmed reports about Sinwar’s killing end up being true, the organisation will have to go through a “regrouping period” since its leadership structure has been “decimated”.
“Looking back at some of the news reports from after the assassination of [former Hamas leader] Ismail Haniyeh at the end of July .. .the head of the Israeli Shin Bet, the internal intelligence agency, said ‘We will hunt down and kill Hamas leaders wherever they are’,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
The Shin Bet chief listed countries and locations on how far Israel would go, Elmasry said.
“So this strikes me as an important summation of the Israeli objective,” he added. “They’re not prioritising a peace deal, they’re not prioritising getting their hostages back. They want to kill as many Hamas leaders and members as they can no matter the cost.”
The Israeli army said earlier it was investigating the possibility of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar being killed in Gaza. Hamas has not yet commented.
US informed of possible Sinwar assassination
The Israelis did inform the United States that they were investigating the possibility of the death of the Hamas chief.
Now, the US is consulting with its own spy agencies on the ground. The US has invested an enormous number of resources and, in coordination with Israeli spy and intelligence agencies, has been working for many, many months.
In fact, we can go back as far as late January and then again in August, when, in coordination, the two agencies came very close a number of times to finding Hamas hideouts and were really within hours of just missing the Hamas chief.
So it seems and appears this time they may have been successful.
Now, what we do know in terms of the potential death of Yahya Sinwar is that it really does put in question where the efforts of the US to try and bring about ceasefire agreements will come into play.
