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Report: Netanyahu Rejected Plan to Kill Hamas' Yahya Sinwar Six Times

Leader of Hamas in Gaza Yahya al-Sinwar. (AP)
Leader of Hamas in Gaza Yahya al-Sinwar. (AP)
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Report: Netanyahu Rejected Plan to Kill Hamas' Yahya Sinwar Six Times

Leader of Hamas in Gaza Yahya al-Sinwar. (AP)
Leader of Hamas in Gaza Yahya al-Sinwar. (AP)

Israeli former defense minister Avigdor Liberman confirmed on Tuesday a Maariv report saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected - several times - a plan to kill leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya al-Sinwar.

The report by Ben Caspit said that between 2011 and 2023, Netanyahu rejected several plans presented by the Shin Bet to eliminate Sinwar and other senior members of the Palestinian movement.

Netanyahu’s office denied the reports.

However, Liberman said Netanyahu was the one who granted “immunity” to Sinwar and the leaders of Hamas, standing against any attempts to neutralize them.

“I'm stating this not as mere speculation, but as someone with personal knowledge of the matter,” he stated.

In his report, Caspit said Netanyahu rejected the plan to eliminate Sinwar at least six times in recent years. He added that the plan was put forward to Netanyahu by the three most recent heads of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) during their respective tenures: Yoram Cohen, Nadav Argaman, and the current head, Ronen Bar.

Caspit wrote that according to conversations with numerous senior figures in the security establishment, the operational plan was well-thought-out and actionable that could be put into motion at any given moment.

According to the plan, Sinwar didn’t spend most of his time in hiding; he maintained a visible presence and did not move between secret apartments or bunkers, unlike Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has followed such practices since 2006.

A month ago, former Shin Bet head Cohen revealed to “Meet the Press” that the agency had recommended conduction operations targeting all of Hamas' leaders in Gaza. He said Netanyahu rejected all of these operational opportunities.

Caspit, a leading journalist in Israel, has accused Netanyahu of systematically strengthening Hamas to deepen divisions between the Palestinian factions. He is also working on weakening the Palestinian Authority and its President Mahmoud Abbas.

Netanyahu views Hamas as a “treasure” that will help him scuttle the two-state solution, continued Caspit. He added that the first favor Netanyahu offered Hamas was the prisoner swap deal that saw the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in return for 1,027 Palestinian detainees, including Sinwar, in 2011.

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Lebanon Security Source Says Hezbollah Official Targeted in Beirut Strike

Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
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Lebanon Security Source Says Hezbollah Official Targeted in Beirut Strike

Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

A Lebanese security source said the target of a deadly Israeli airstrike on central Beirut early Saturday was a senior Hezbollah official, adding it was unclear whether he was killed.

"The Israeli strike on Basta targeted a leading Hezbollah figure," the security official told AFP without naming the figure, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The early morning airstrike has killed at least 15 people and injured 63, according to authorities, and had brought down an eight-storey building nearby, in the second such attack on the working-class neighbourhood of Basta in as many months.

"The strike was so strong it felt like the building was about to fall on our heads," said Samir, 60, who lives with his family in a building facing the one that was hit.

"It felt like they had targeted my house," he said, asking to be identified by only his first name because of security concerns.

There had been no evacuation warning issued by the Israeli military for the Basta area.

After the strike, Samir fled his home in the middle of the night with his wife and two children, aged 14 and just three.

On Saturday morning, dumbstruck residents watched as an excavator cleared the wreckage of the razed building and rescue efforts continued, with nearby buildings also damaged in the attack, AFP journalists reported.

The densely packed district has welcomed people displaced from traditional Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon's east, south and southern Beirut, after Israel intensified its air campaign on September 23, later sending in ground troops.

"We saw two dead people on the ground... The children started crying and their mother cried even more," Samir told AFP, reporting minor damage to his home.

Since last Sunday, four deadly Israeli strikes have hit central Beirut, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.

Residents across the city and its outskirts awoke at 0400 (0200 GMT) on Saturday to loud explosions and the smell of gunpowder in the air.

"It was the first time I've woken up screaming in terror," said Salah, a 35-year-old father of two who lives in the same street as the building that was targeted.

"Words can't express the fear that gripped me," he said.

Saturday's strikes were the second time the Basta district had been targeted since war broke out, after deadly twin strikes early in October hit the area and the Nweiri neighbourhood.

Last month's attacks killed 22 people and had targeted Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa, who made it out alive, a source close to the group told AFP.

Salah said his wife and children had been in the northern city of Tripoli, about 70 kilometres away (45 miles), but that he had to stay in the capital because of work.

His family had been due to return this weekend because their school reopens on Monday, but now he has decided against it following the attack.

"I miss them. Every day they ask me: 'Dad, when are we coming home?'" he said.

Lebanon's health ministry says that more than 3,650 people have been killed since October 2023, after Hezbollah initiated exchanges of fire with Israel in solidarity with its Iran-backed ally Hamas over the Gaza war.

However, most of the deaths in Lebanon have been since September this year.

Despite the trauma caused by Saturday's strike, Samir said he and his family had no choice but to return home.

"Where else would I go?" he asked.

"All my relatives and siblings have been displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs and from the south."