Sinwar rejected escape offer, vowed to stay and fight: WSJ

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Wall Street Journal
21 Oct 2024 15:38

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had reportedly prepared for the possibility of his death, instructing Hamas members that "Israel" might be more inclined to offer concessions once he was gone.

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Martyr Yahya Sinwar appears before supporters in 2022 during a rally marking the 35th (Undated, AFP)

The Wall Street Journal reported that Arab negotiators offered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar the chance to escape in exchange for allowing Egypt to handle negotiations on behalf of Hamas.

However, Sinwar rejected the offer, as he was reportedly seeking to escalate military operations in Gaza, as per the report.

In a previously unreported message, Sinwar told Arab mediators, "I’m not under siege, I’m on Palestinian soil," showing his defiance early in the war.

Sinwar, as per the report, began to be perceived as a more significant threat after the escalation in May 2021, when Hamas launched rocket strikes on "Israel". During that time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized airstrikes targeting Sinwar and Hamas’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, though the strikes failed.

Following Hezbollah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination in September, Sinwar warned Hamas's political leadership that increased pressure for compromise would follow, but advised them to resist such pressure, according to Arab mediators as cited by WSJ.

The report also highlighted that Sinwar had prepared for the possibility of his death, instructing Hamas members that "Israel" might be more inclined to offer concessions once he was gone. According to the report, he advised the formation of a leadership council to govern in his absence, expressing his belief that Hamas would be in a stronger position to negotiate with "Israel" after his death.

Yahya Sinwar's final moments garner him martyr status: The Guardian

British news website The Guardian pointed out on Sunday that the inconsistencies in the official Israeli narrative regarding the final moments leading up to the martyrdom of Hamas political chief Yahya Sinwar have garnered significant interest and widespread interaction on social media, earning him the title of "martyr" who died for the cause he believed in.

The news website stated that Sinwar's resistance until his last breath has inspired admiration and made him an icon in Gaza and beyond.

It added that in the final minutes before his martyrdom, he was wearing combat gear and reportedly threw all available hand grenades at Israeli soldiers, even attempting to down a drone with a stick he threw at it.

The report references how social media has quickly circulated imagery and poetry, including works by celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, which resonate with the narrative of defiance in the face of overwhelming force.

The Guardian also noted that Sinwar was armed with a pistol, which some Israeli reports suggested was taken from a former military intelligence officer in the Israeli army who was killed during a covert operation in Gaza in 2018.

Furthermore, The Guardian drew parallels between Sinwar and the iconic figure of Ernesto Che Guevara, the Argentine doctor who fought in the Cuban Revolution and was killed by the Bolivian army in 1967, becoming a symbol of his cause.

Elsewhere, the news website emphasized that Sinwar's martyrdom as a fighter will secure him a prominent place in the hearts of Palestinians and their collective memory, noting that despite the limited resources available to the Resistance, he was able to "change the rules of the game."