Hamas seeking to replace Gaza leader

Hamas’s leadership abroad is looking to replace its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, as the terror group’s battalions in Khan Younis have been dismantled and an offensive in Rafah looms, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday, reported from The Times of Israel. 

Security forces have yet to get their hands on Sinwar, or Hamas’s military commander, Mohammad Deif, and his deputy Marwan Issa. But Sinwar has reportedly been out of contact with the terror group’s leadership abroad since the end of January and his involvement in ongoing hostage negotiations is in question.

"Hamas does not trust its commanders—tthis is a very, very noticeable thing,” Gallant said following an assessment with the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman.

"Hamas-Gaza is MIA, there is no one to talk to among leadership on the ground,” he said, alleging that Hamas leadership abroad was looking for new leaders in Gaza. "That means there is a tender [in Hamas] for who will run Gaza,” he said.

In Khan Younis, Gallant said some 200 terror suspects had surrendered to troops at Nasser Hospital, and dozens more at Al-Amal Hospital, which he argued indicated the loss of Hamas’s "fighting spirit.”

Gallant said Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade had been "defeated and does not function as a military entity in any way.”

"Hamas is left with marginal [forces] in the central camps and with the Rafah Brigade, and what stands between them and a complete collapse as a military system is a decision by the IDF,” he said.

"There is no one here to come to their aid, no Iranians, no international aid,” Gallant said, vowing that the army would dismantle the remaining six Hamas battalions — two in central Gaza and four in Rafah.

"We have no right to stop as long as there are 134 hostages” held by Hamas, he added.

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