GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 378

What About The Hostages?

What Now?

A day after the massive news of Hamas’ leaders assassination it fitting to ask how this changes things. We learn from a report in The Jerusalem Post it appears that the hostage situation is only getting worse:

Israeli hostages in Gaza will not return until "the aggression" on the besieged Palestinian enclave stops and Israeli forces withdraw, Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy Gaza Hamas chief and the group's chief negotiator, said on Friday.

So they are telling Israel and the world that the only way they’ll release the hostages is if the war ends. Also of note, they finally admit that Sinwar died:

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by the IDF, Hamas official Basem Naim confirmed on Friday, Israeli media reported.

Naim serves as the terror organization's political bureau head.

Naim seems to think that Hamas only got stronger by losing Sinwar:

Upon confirming Sinwar's death, Naim said, "Hamas becomes stronger and more popular with each elimination of its leaders. It hurts to lose people, especially unique leaders like Yahya Sinwar, but we are sure we will win in the end."

He also doesn’t see Israel ever being able to take apart Hamas:

Naim also placed doubt on Israel's ability to dismantle the organization by killing off leadership.

"Israel seems to believe that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people. They can believe what they want, and this is not the first time they have said that," he added.

He does have a point about people changing the minds about who they support, but eliminating functional leadership means they can’t kill Israelis with an army. As you probably know, Sinwar is officially acknowledged to be pushing up daisies:

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by the IDF in Tel Sultan in Rafah on Wednesday in an unplanned operation, sources close to the matter confirmed to The Jerusalem Post Thursday evening, several hours after rumors arose that he had been killed earlier Thursday.

With news like this the hostage families have to be despondent and I can understand why they are feeling this way. But it is early and the politics of these terrorists is to be proud and defiant after losing their leader. However, lost in all of this rhetoric is that the IDF found Sinwar and the rest of his leadership and will not rest until the hostages are found and sent home to their families. And with the IDF’s record of finding anyone they want, that is their only hope.

Sinwar’s DNA Found Near Hostages

Now that Sinwar is dead, the IDF, in an article from The Times Of Israel we are told that he was with the murdered hostages found in August:

The IDF found Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s DNA some weeks ago in a Rafah tunnel which was in the same complex as — but a few hundred meters from — a separate tunnel where six Israeli hostages were murdered in late August, The Times of Israel learned on Thursday.

They found the DNA after searching the tunnel nearby:

IDF and Shin Bet forces were searching the tunnel, which was part of the same complex in which the six hostages were killed, and found a room that they believed senior Hamas commanders may have used.

They took DNA samples from the underground room and found that some of it belonged to Sinwar, but were not able to pin down when he was there.

It was known for some time that Sinwar used hostages as human shields so thinking he was with these six hostages before they were murdered is logical:

The mastermind behind Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which started the ongoing war, Sinwar was long reported to have surrounded himself with hostages, from among the 251 people kidnapped during the assault.

When news of his death broke on Thursday, Israeli officials were quick to specify that no hostages had been found in his vicinity.

An unsourced report on Channel 12 said that Sinwar had previously been hiding with the six hostages, and that the firefight on Wednesday in which he was killed along with two bodyguards took place in the same area where the hostages were held and killed.

It is highly likely that Sinwar told his soldiers to take the lives of the hostages when the IDF got close:

Sinwar likely gave the order to kill the six hostages as he fled the area, the report added.

Hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi are believed to have been executed by their captors on August 29, before being discovered by troops less than two days later.

And it also probable that he was there as the tunnel was connected to the building Sinwar died in:

The tunnel where their bodies were found was a narrow 120-meter-long passageway — not tall enough to stand in without bending over — that connected parts of a large underground network in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, which according to the IDF belonged to Hamas’s Rafah Brigade.

A relative of one of those hostages wants Israel to use Sinwar’s death to get the rest of the hostages still being held:

Gil Dickmann, Carmel Gat’s cousin, called on the government and world leaders to leverage Sinwar’s death to negotiate the immediate release of the remaining 101 hostages.

“We don’t know if he pulled the trigger, or ordered their deaths, it’s devastating to us and shows how close we were to getting them out,” said Dickmann, at a press conference.

“We don’t know for how long they were held together or with Sinwar or the conversations they were having. Now all six are gone and so is Sinwar, but when the six were murdered we said we don’t know who murdered them and don’t care about revenge, we care only about bringing back the 101 hostages.”

Dickman, along with many others felt that Sinwar was the one holding up a hostage deal and they may be right:

Sinwar was widely seen as a major obstacle to a deal, and world leaders have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use the opportunity to negotiate the remaining captives’ release.