GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 125

Where Is Sinwar?

He’s Incommunicado

The IDF is telling us that the leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar has gone silent for the last 10 days and isn’t involved in hostage talks with Qatar and Egypt. We read more on this in a report from The Times Of Israel:

The security establishment reportedly believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been “out of contact” for the past ten days, not making any contact with Qatari and Egyptian mediators during that period.

Channel 12 says the reason for the disconnect is not clear and could be because he is on the run, engaged in a tactical ruse or simply unable to make contact due to the ongoing communications problems in Gaza.

Several decisions were made by Hamas in the past few days without him, though not necessarily ones relating to the hostages deal, Channel 12 says

According to some sources, Sinwar wasn’t involved with the last response Hamas made:

Kan reports that the Israeli security establishment’s assessment is that Sinwar was not involved in the issuing of Hamas’s response to the Qatari hostage deal framework earlier this week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed yesterday as “delusional.”

This is an important issue since the leadership of the terrorists have to approve any deal:

The Hamas response included a clause stating that the deal would be “subject to the approval of the Hamas leadership in Gaza.”

Was that clause added because they know without Sinwar’s input no deal can be made and they know why he’s not been heard from and don’t want a deal? We really don’t know, but if he is indeed constantly on the run then the war could be over soon. Some have said that is Sinwar is captured or even killed, the army will surrender. It is a good theory, but these terrorists aren’t going to just lay down and give up. Most likely, they will decide to pull a Samson maneuver and try to take as many Israelis down with them before they are taken out.

Dozens Will Become Hundreds

In a strike that was a response to three IDF troops being hurt, the IDF may have taken out more leaders of Hezbollah as we read in an article from i24news.tv:

An apparent Israeli drone strike Thursday in southern Lebanon targeted two Hezbollah operatives, reportedly including a senior commander in the Lebanese terror group, following repeated missile attacks that left three IDF soldiers wounded — one seriously — and damaged a house near the border.

The attack follows a flurry of military activity from both sides:

As a rash of cross-border attacks throughout the day kept tensions at the border high, Israel’s air force chief threatened that hundreds of attack aircraft could be flown into Lebanon at a moment’s notice.

Video from the Lebanese town of Nabatieh, some 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Israel’s northern border, showed a car in flames after it was apparently struck from the air.

Although no reports contain concrete evidence of who was targeted and if they survived, the article did give us more details on both:

There was conflicting information about the Hezbollah members’ condition after the apparent strike, with some reports saying one or both of them were killed. But a Lebanese security source told AFP that a senior operative was “seriously wounded and a companion was also injured.”

Sky News Arabic identified the high-ranking Hezbollah member as Abbas Al-Debes, while the other was not immediately named.

According to Arabic media reports, Al-Debes was tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was helping Iran set up air defenses in Syria.

There was no direct comment from Hezbollah or the Israel Defense Forces on Al-Debes, though the latter issued a statement saying it carried out a new wave of strikes on Hezbollah targets on Thursday, including on a building used by the Iran-backed terror group and other infrastructure in the towns of Khiam, Nabatieh and Kfar Hamam.

The IDF air force is ready to do more:

The strikes came as Israeli Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar warned Hezbollah that Israel was prepared to significantly ratchet up its strikes against the terror group.

“Hezbollah will continue to pay with the loss of its systems. Dozens of aircraft are now operating in the skies of southern Lebanon, and as soon as the order is given, the dozens will turn into hundreds that will perform the missions within minutes of being scrambled,” Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said at an internal IAF conference, according to a transcript published by the IDF.

I continue to say that a major conflict with Hezbollah is coming if anyone is listening. And if the terrorists from the north do attack in full force, we’ll see more than those hundred airplanes flying to respond.

US Warns Israel

Even though Prime Minister Netanyahu directed the IDF to get ready for moving into the city of Rafah, the United States sternly warned Israel to not do so as we read in a report from i24news.tv:

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel emphasized that Washington has yet to see evidence of serious planning for such an operation and underscored the potential catastrophic consequences of undertaking such action without proper reflection.

Patel highlighted the densely populated nature of the area, housing approximately one million people, and emphasized the need for careful consideration before initiating any military operation.

He stated, "Conducting such an operation at this time without planning... would be a disaster."

Another spokesperson added this:

Echoing these sentiments, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby emphasized that an Israeli operation in Rafah, given the current circumstances, would pose significant risks to civilians and garner no support from the United States.

As I have said before, at some point Israel will have to act on its own if it wants to bring peace and safety to the area. And on another front, intelligence from the United States disputes that Israel is close to ending the war which we see in an article from The Times Of Israel:

US intelligence officials told members of Congress earlier this week that Israel had damaged Hamas’s combat abilities, but is not close to achieving its war aim of eliminating the terrorist organization militarily, The New York Times reports, citing “American officials.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted throughout the war that destroying Hamas’s military and political capabilities, and bringing back all the hostages, are the primary aims of the ongoing war.

Who are we to believe? I trust Israeli sources more than I trust my own country’s intelligence which I see to have a political agenda biased against Israel. Support for Israel can be fickle with the current administration in America and I guarantee you that God, who never sleeps or slumbers is watching closely and sees their true intentions and will judge accordingly. You don’t poke God’s eye by stopping the apple of His eye from defending themselves. And you certainly don’t want His curses:

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and the entire world will be blessed because of you.” (Gen 12:3, TLB)