Sinwar excluded other Hamas leaders from Oct 7th plans – report

Many of the Hamas higher-ups did not know the operation was going to take place until a few hours before it was launched.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Palestinian sources claim that only Yahya Sinwar and his close inner circle planned and knew about the October 7th massacre.

The details and even the date were not disclosed to other heads of the terror group, and many of the higher-ups did not know the operation was going to take place until a few hours before,  according to a Sky News Arabia report.

Although accounts of who planned and were aware of the October 7th massacre vary, sources are consistent in saying that only Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed his brother, Mohammed Deif and one or two others were involved.

According to one source, only the Sinwar brothers, Deif and Marwan Issa, Hamas’s Deputy Military Commander, were privy to the plans.

Another Palestinian source in January said that in addition to the Sinwar brothers and Deif, Rouhi Mushtaha, a Hamas official close to Sinwar and Ayman Nofal, was included in the plans.  Nofal was once in charge of al-Qassam Brigades’ intelligence.

In addition, sources indicate that the decision to implement the plan was not made until October 6, the day before the massive terror attack.

Reports reveal that Hamas members involved in political and leadership roles, such as Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh al-Arouri X, were only informed hours before the attack was launched.

The IDF has been searching for October 7th mastermind Yahya Sinwar who was rumored to have fled through the tunnels into Egypt using hostages as human shields.

The IDF, however, has denied these rumors which were circulated in January.  In late February, the IDF arrived at an area within the Khan Younis tunnels that Sinwar appeared to have vacated recently.

A senior Israeli military official told Walla News! that Sinwar had been surprised by the IDF’s ground invasion of the Strip, and hadn’t expected such a deep incursion into the coastal enclave.

Since troops entered the Strip, Sinwar has been scrambling to evade capture, and is making errors due to his haste to avoid Israeli soldiers and intelligence forces.