Terrorist leader speaks out

[Peggysoonerthanlater]

Now you have it for the horse's mouth -

Yahya Sinwar: Hamas leader in Gaza didn't expect consequences of 7 October attack to be 'this dangerous', says friend

Updated Wed, 14 February 2024 at 10:02 pm GMT

The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the main planners of the 7 October attack on Israel but did not expect the consequences to become "this dangerous", a friend has told Sky News.
Esmat Mansour (who has been in prison with Sinwar) said last year's cross-border raid was supposed to be a strategic operation designed to lift the Israeli siege on the territory, release Sinwar's friends from prison, and make him a "leader of the Palestinian people".
But the calculations "didn't go as planned", the reaction of the Israelis was "uncontrolled, without any justification", and "now we have this result", he explained.
"He [Sinwar] didn't expect the operation to make things this complicated and to go as far as it did and become this dangerous. And [it] gave Israel all the reasons and excuses to break all the rules."
Speaking from Ramallah in the West Bank, Mansour said: "I think he was one of the main people behind this operation."
He claimed that if Sinwar knew what the consequences of the assault would be, he "would never have planned an operation this way".
Mansour, who has been in prison with Sinwar, said the Hamas leader had "wanted to make a change".
According to his ex-fellow inmate, Sinwar "tried several times to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, to make a good relationship with Egypt, and he tried to provoke Israel to lift the siege on Gaza".
"After all these efforts, he didn't succeed. After that, he had to make a strategic change to [do] a huge operation like this. A big part of it was thought up by Sinwar."
Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in its raid on Israel last October and took around 250 others hostage.
The attack led to retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza that have killed at least 28,576 Palestinians, including mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israeli military claims it has killed or captured 8,000-9,000 Hamas fighters since 7 October.

From Sky News

I've never seen one. I've also never seen a pro Israeli poster condemn the atrocities of the IDF.

You must be doing an awful lot of skim-reading then.

Nope. Have yet to see it. Saying it's sad and tragic and oh, poor Palestinians (usually followed by blaming their plight on Hamas) isn't the same as accepting that the IDF commits atrocities and that those atrocities should be condemned.

Israel's reaction was entirely predictable based on their past treatment of the Palestinians. Absolutely everyone knew they'd go on a spree of carnage, and Hamas would have known too. My guess was they wanted Israel to show itself at its most barbarous in order to shock the world and raise support for the plight of the Palestinians. They've achieved that. But I can also believe in human stupidity.

Technically they are still civilians but if you aid or abet terrorists you may be liable, even if you claim duress which would be hard to prove, to be prosecuted - outside a war zone or after conflict is over.

Hamas has plenty of support (have you seen the reaction on the streets of Gaza to 7th October?) and are most likely to "house" hostages with those who support them, especially after the ground invasion. The majority of released hostages who have said they were held by civilians have given no indication those people were remotely reluctant or that Hamas had "taken over" their homes.

Of course Hamas often wear civilian clothes so the "civilians " could well be Hamas families.

Oh well, if you haven't seen it I guess it must be true.

Feel free to direct me towards examples.

A more targeted approach that didn’t kill so many innocent civilians and displace most of Gaza. Exactly what the US, the EU are calling for now.

*I'm talking about here. People saying "oh but it's fine when Hamas do it!!!" when literally nobody has ever said that here.

Do you condemn the grotesque attacks on civilians in Gaza*

People have done it on here.

Of course I'm immensely sorry when innocent civilians are killed. I would like the IDF to be more careful, just as I would like Hamas to look after its own people better. By the way have you condemned the massacres on 7th October?

Most get reported and end up deleted. Perhaps they should be left so everyone can see what some posters are truly like.

Yes, repeatedly.

You don't accept in your post that the IDF is committing atrocities. Given what they're doing at the moment saying they should "be more careful" is actually insulting. I'll keep waiting.

Of course that's the most desirable thing but if you do that, how do you fight an enemy that's embedded amongst the population in the way that Hamas is and destroy their infrastructure so they can't attack you again?

I mean I have no idea.

No, that's ok. I don't feel the need to prove myself to a complete stranger on the internet. I've condemned various actions and statements from both the IDF and the Israeli government over the months and I'm far from the only pro-Israel poster on here to do so.

Haha. I thought as much.

I mean, your request was about as reasonable as Hamas' ceasefire negotiations starting point - you were asking me to go through thousands upon thousands of comments to find ones that would satisfy you. I'm quite obviously not going to do that. Maybe do a search for "illegal settlers" on here and see what you can find 👍🏻 But I suspect you won't and that you'd rather just keep pretending your completely fabricated narrative about me is accurate. And that's your prerogative. Some people are happier when they have someone to hate and pick on, and I can't do anything to help you with that I'm afraid.

Repeatedly, really.? And I don't care what you find insulting any more than you care what people here think of you.

What is your definition of a pro-Israel poster then? Because you'd assume it's someone who supports the actions of Israel rather than condemns them?

Some people seem to think that if you condemn the actions of the Israeli government then you are not pro Israel.

But then others think that if you merely think that Hamas is bad then you must definitely support Israel and you get called a shill and all sorts.

So what's your definition?

Yes, repeatedly.

Where have you done this? Feel free to provide examples.

I've reported a bunch that have been deleted.

Why would you want them to be allowed to stand? Supporting terrorism is illegal.

Bullshit. Those comments feed into the 'proportionality' narrative. Hamas unleashed barbarism on innocent civilians. They get what they deserve (and surely expected). I am genuinely sorry for ALL civilians caught up in this. War is horrific.

Also, if this is true. Handover the hostages FFS.

Just because you've never seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

The poster was asking that I prove that pro-Israel posters have previously condemned Israel's actions. They think they've won because I'm obviously not going to go through thousands upon thousands of comments. It's all a bit weird.

Their atrocities are detailed here every day. It shouldn't be that hard to find a pro-Israeli poster who condemns one of them. You shouldn't have to go through weeks and weeks of posts to find one. I'm not talking about illegal settlers (illegal settlers and Netanyahu are the go-to things that can be criticised about Israel it seems). I'm talking about the war crimes that are happening now, in Gaza.

@StarbucksSmarterSister yes, I'll repeat: repeatedly. I have no problem saying that Hamas has committed disgusting atrocities. Why can't you do the same for the IDF?

Israel themselves have stated that they estimate circa 8,000 terrorists. Saying that they “may” have killed civilians who are family of terrorists or supporters of Hamas doesn’t remotely justify killing so many civilians, decimating Gaza’s crucial infrastructure, displacing most of the population and causing a humanitarian crisis.

Stemming the support of Hamas would involve showing the Palestinian’s a viable political alternative. The Israeli authorities are simply driving them into the arms of terrorists. Because this Israeli government don’t want a peaceful solution.

It’s not me saying that - that is the opinion of the US.