Yahya Sinwar: Hamas chief in Gaza did not count on penalties of seven October assault to be ‘this harmful’, says pal

The high Hamas chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was one of many primary planners of the 7 October assault on Israel however didn’t count on the implications to turn out to be “this dangerous”, a pal has instructed Sky News.

Esmat Mansour stated final yr’s cross-border raid was purported to be a strategic operation designed to carry the Israeli siege on the territory, launch Sinwar’s buddies from jail, and make him a “leader of the Palestinian people”.

But the calculations “didn’t go as planned”, the response of the Israelis was “uncontrolled, without any justification”, and “now we have this result”, he defined.

“He [Sinwar] didn’t expect the operation to make things this complicated and to go as far as it did and become this dangerous. And [it] gave Israel all the reasons and excuses to break all the rules.”

Live updates: Israel launches wave of assaults on Lebanon

Speaking from Ramallah within the West Bank, Mansour stated: “I think he was one of the main people behind this operation.”

He claimed that if Sinwar knew what the implications of the assault can be, he “would never have planned an operation this way”.

Mansour, who has been in jail with Sinwar, stated the Hamas chief had “wanted to make a change”.

According to his ex-fellow inmate, Sinwar “tried several times to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, to make a good relationship with Egypt, and he tried to provoke Israel to lift the siege on Gaza“.

“After all these efforts, he didn’t succeed. After that, he had to make a strategic change to [do] a huge operation like this. A big part of it was thought up by Sinwar.”

Hamas killed 1,200 individuals, largely civilians, in its raid on Israel final October and took round 250 others hostage.

The assault led to retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza which have killed no less than 28,576 Palestinians, together with largely ladies and youngsters, in response to the Hamas-run well being ministry.

The Israeli navy claims it has killed or captured 8,000-9,000 Hamas fighters since 7 October.

Amid the strikes and a floor assault, about 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million individuals have been pushed from their houses.

Large areas in northern Gaza have been fully destroyed, the vast majority of individuals have moved additional south, and a humanitarian disaster has left 1 / 4 of the inhabitants ravenous.

Read extra:
Who is Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar?
‘Gaza is worst humanitarian disaster I’ve seen in 50 years’ – high UN official
Does Netanyahu have the nerve for a navy operation in Rafah or is it a ruse?

It comes because the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a video of what it claimed was Sinwar and his household strolling by means of tunnels underneath the southern Gazan metropolis of Khan Younis, simply days after the 7 October assault.

The face of the person Israel says is Sinwar isn’t seen.

But Mansour, who’s now an analyst, stated the footage was a propaganda video by the Israeli navy aimed toward a home viewers and in addition for Palestinian consumption.

“They [the Israelis] want to say that they are following him and trying to get him,” he stated.

But he acknowledged it was additionally a message for the individuals of Gaza that “he’s running away and living safely with his family while they are suffering”.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

Mansour believes his pal remains to be within the Gaza Strip and “will not leave” the territory underneath “any situation”.

“He believes that if he leaves Gaza, his popularity and his legitimacy as leader will go,” he stated.

Sinwar spent greater than 20 years in jail for killing each Israelis and fellow Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the opposite facet.

He was launched in 2011 as a part of a swap of greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for only one hostage Israeli soldier – Gilad Shalit.