Civilian shields

Chat messages reveal brutal Hamas calculation

"Think carefully about who benefits from our division - unity now," reads a poster in Israel showing Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar.

(Bild: AFP/JACK GUEZ)

The military wing of Hamas has so far willfully accepted civilian casualties. This is suggested by analyzed message logs from the terrorist leadership, which have now been made public. According to Hamas, the many deaths in the Gaza Strip are "necessary victims".

According to a report in the US newspaper "Wall Street Journal", the head of the radical Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar, has not yet agreed to a ceasefire with Israel because he expects to benefit from continued fighting and rising casualties among Palestinian civilians.

The newspaper reported that this was evident from messages that Al-Sinwar recently sent to Hamas representatives involved in negotiations for a ceasefire. In a message to Hamas leaders in Doha (Qatar), Sinwar said of the thousands of dead in Gaza: "They are necessary victims."

Dozens of messages analyzed
According to the Wall Street Journal, it has access to dozens of messages, of which it was not clear whether they were text, voice or other types of messages. "We have the Israelis exactly where we want them," the terrorist leader is reported to have said recently.

In many messages, Al-Sinwar "displayed a cold disregard for human life and made it clear that he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas," the newspaper continues. Al-Sinwar is not the first Palestinian leader to use bloodshed as a means of exerting pressure on Israel. But the extent of collateral damage in this war - civilians killed and destruction caused - is unprecedented between Israelis and Palestinians.

Hamas leader was surprised by brutality
Al-Sinwar had planned the Hamas terror attacks in the Israeli border area on October 7, which triggered the current Gaza war. However, very early messages to the ceasefire negotiators showed that he had been surprised by the brutality of Hamas fighters and other Palestinians and also by how easily they committed atrocities, the newspaper continued.

"Things were getting out of control," he had written in one of the messages, referring to the gangs taking civilian women and children hostage. "People got involved, and that should not have happened."

Despite Israel's fierce efforts to kill him, Al-Sinwar lives in an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip. The news also showed that he would be willing to die in battle, the newspaper continues.