Hamas leader Sinwar escaped in a tunnel/IDF spokesman
Lt. Col. Alon Avitar, an expert on the Palestinian scene, said this morning (Wednesday) that the video published yesterday of the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, escaping in a tunnel at the beginning of the war - has no effect on Hamas. "What we here perceived as significant - in reality it has no No effect," Avitar said in an interview on the "Seven Nine" program with Udi Segal and Anat Davidov on 103FM. "It's not even a light hit in the wing.
" You are being followed, who are your family members and how do you move from place to place'.
The issue is currently four months after the incident in the tunnel, I don't think it has any effect," Avitar continued. "That's not what tipped the scales in terms of pressure."
Excerpt from the video of Sinwar fleeing in the tunnel/screenshot, IDF spokesman
According to him, despite the pressure and the military achievements, Hamas has not changed its positions drastically.
"So far we haven't seen them go down too many steps on the ladder. What can have an effect is eliminations, when we reach the starting five (of senior Hamas officials), for now we haven't reached the top 5," he explained.
"The second thing is to try and reach as much as possible for rescues of hostages as well. And the other thing, external pressure, both Qatari and Egyptian, which is not particularly impressive, it does not reach them to the significant weak points. Israel in this context can expect, to act on even more significant Qatari-Egyptian pressure On Hamas. These are the levers that exist."
Later, Avitar continued to claim that the military pressure has an effect from a security point of view, but not on the negotiations for the release of the abductees.
"It is impossible to ignore the fact that the military pressure is giving its signals, both in the context of the organization's functioning, its ability to control the field and also in the context of managing the campaign from the tunnels," he said.
"To tell you are we really here at a critical point in time, as far as the Israeli interest is concerned in removing Hamas from its rigid positions in the deal? It is still too early to say so."
More on the same topic:
Yahya Sinwar
Gaza war
War of Iron Swords
Hamas