“Necessary sacrifices”: the macabre cynicism of the Hamas leader in Gaza
“The bloodshed (in the Gaza Strip) will benefit Hamas.” This is it, the “brutal calculation” of Hamas leader in the Palestinian enclave, Yahya Sinwar, according to “dozens of messages” signed by his hand, that the American daily The Wall Street Journal was able to consult.
Messages which were sent to its partners within the Palestinian movement, as part of indirect discussions with Israel around an agreement on the end of the fighting and the release of hostages, or even to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
It is undoubtedly this cynical and macabre calculation which explains why Yahya Sinwar has until then “resisted pressure” aiming to conclude an agreement that does not meet its requirements.
In February, as Israel pressed Hamas to conclude a ceasefire before Ramadan or risk launching an offensive in Rafah, Sinwar urged its partners not to accept concessions and to continue demanding an end to the war. “The large number of victims will put international pressure on Israel,” he then wrote to them.
“Historic victory”
Because the goal of the Hamas leader in Gaza appears clearly in his correspondence, reports Ynetnews. “Sinwar’s ultimate goal appears to be to secure a permanent ceasefire that would allow Hamas to declare a historic victory – having ‘survived’ Israeli efforts to eliminate it – and then claim leadership of the Palestinian national cause”, writing the English-language site of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.
In this context, resume Ynetnews, Sinwar believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has little choice but to occupy the Gaza Strip” and so, “getting bogged down in months and years of struggle against Hamas”.
Thus, estimates Yahya Sinwar in one of these messages taken back by The Jerusalem Post :
“We have the Israelis where we wanted them to be.”
“Necessary sacrifices”
But what the entire Israeli press notes is, as described The Wall Street Journal, her “cold disregard for human life”.
And this even if the leader of Hamas in Gaza seems to have been surprised by the “brutality” and the “civil atrocities” Hamas attackers on October 7: “Things have gotten out of control. (…) People got carried away, and that shouldn’t have happened,” he writes.
Nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed that day, and 251 people taken hostage. Today, 116 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 41 have died, according to the Israeli army.
Thus, Sinwar explains that the more than 37,000 Gazans killed since the start of the war in the enclave were “necessary sacrifices”, relays the Israeli daily Ha’Aretz.
He even wrote, in a letter to the political leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, that the death of the inhabitants of Gaza, including that of three of his sons killed in an Israeli bombardment, “would breathe life into the veins of this nation, inspiring it to rise to its glory and honor”.
