Hamas chief has disappeared, claims Qatar

The Hamas leader has surrounded himself with hostages and communicates only by pen and paper in fear of an Israeli attack, they said.

By World Israel News Staff

Qatari officials who met with representatives of families whose loved ones are still being held hostage in Gaza told them that Hamas head Yahya Sinwar has gone silent and disappeared, Channel 12 reported Sunday evening.

According to the report, Sharon Sharabi, who has two captive brothers, one known dead and one hopefully still alive, asked the Qatari officials what is the status of the negotiations and what has happened to Sinwar.

Rumors of the arch-terrorist’s possible death have been circulating recently in the media, with nothing heard of him in several weeks.

“Right now, Sinwar isn’t communicating with us,” they answered, according to the report. “He has disappeared from us as well, and has not made contact. He stopped using phones because of the assassinations, and is now communicating through pen and paper. It’s making things very difficult.”

They added that they have no evidence that points to his death and believe Sinwar is surrounding himself with hostages to add another layer of protection to himself.

A week ago, Channel 12 reported that at some point in the ongoing war, Israel had received “gold-plated” intelligence information as to the whereabouts of the Hamas chief but did not make the attempt to assassinate him due to their concern that they also would accidentally kill hostages that he had around him.

The Qataris blamed Israel for the breakdown in negotiations.

They told the families, “Israel instituted this policy of assassinations and it soured the deal. We used to have [Hamas political chief Ismail] Haniyeh, and he was eliminated. Now there’s Khaled Mashaal, and he is a lot tougher than Haniyeh.”

The report noted that the families understand that they “have to take the Qatari claims with a large grain of salt, due to the close ties” between Hamas and the oil-rich nation that has provided the Gazan terrorists with billions of dollars in support over the last decade and more.

Despite the major ground operation the IDF began in Lebanon last week against Hezbollah, Israeli forces are still keeping up the military pressure against Hamas.

Over the last 24 hours, the IAF hit a major command and control center in a former UNRWA site in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, using the humanitarian center as cover for their military operations in contravention of international law.

The IDF then announced Sunday that it surrounded Jabalya overnight due to “intelligence information and … field operations that attested to the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the area, as well as [Hamas] attempts to rebuild” there.

IAF aircraft, it said, “attacked dozens of military targets…including weapons storage sites, underground infrastructure, terrorist squads and other military infrastructure. The operation will continue as long as necessary, systematically hitting and destroying the terrorist infrastructure in the area.”

The IDF had first called on civilians to flee the upcoming battle zone for their own safety.

Hamas responded by commanding the residents not to comply with the demands of the IDF and leave for the humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi in the south.

“Do not respond to the occupation’s threats to evacuate your homes,” the terrorist organization said.