Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on world leaders to pressure Hamas to accept the latest ceasefire proposal this week noting, “If you want to alleviate the terrible suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, press Hamas to say yes.”
Unfortunately, as messages recently intercepted from Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar show, Hamas sees Gazan suffering as its best weapon against Israel, not a tragedy to be avoided.
“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Sinwar wrote to Hamas officials negotiating a ceasefire with Qatari and Egyptian officials. “These are necessary sacrifices,” Sinwar said of the death of Gazan civilians in another message to Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar. Gazan deaths “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor,” Sinwar wrote to another Hamas official.
The problem that Sinwar faced before Oct. 7, 2023, was that the world in general, and the nations of the Middle East in particular, had largely forgotten about Gaza. Saudi Arabia, which had long been a key proponent of creating a state for the people of the West Bank and Gaza, was on the verge of finalizing a deal that would have normalized relations with Israel.
Hamas could not allow that to happen. Peace between Israel and other major powers in the Middle East was an existential threat to Hamas. It had to strike, and it had to strike in a way that maximized casualties on both sides.
“We make the headlines only with blood,” Sinwar told an Italian journalist in 2018. “No blood, no news.”
Once you understand the Hamas mindset, “No blood, no news,” its repeated refusal to sign a ceasefire deal with Israel begins to make sense. A ceasefire would mean an end to Hamas’s relevance. Without Gazan deaths driving headlines, international pressure against Israel’s right to exist would dissipate. Given Hamas’s limited capability to damage the alert and ready Israeli military, civilian Gazan deaths are Hamas’s best weapon against the Israelis.
Sinwar is no stranger to murdering fellow Gazans. After joining the movement in the 1980s, he set up an internal security service dedicated to identifying, locating, and killing Gazans suspected of cooperating with Israel. It is Sinwar’s willingness to kill fellow Gazans that earned him the nickname “The Butcher of Khan Yunis,” the name of his hometown. In fact, it was for the murder of four other Gazans that he was arrested by Israel.
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Given the perverse way Sinwar and Hamas view civilians in Gaza, the best way to protect Palestinian lives and minimize casualties is to find and kill Sinwar and eliminate Hamas as quickly as possible.
A ceasefire signed with Sinwar would be temporary. He would only use a pause in fighting to rebuild Hamas’s strength for another bloody attack on Israel designed, yet again, to capture international attention by maximizing Gazan suffering.