INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Five years ago, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, scrawled a note on a document that he knew Egyptian intermediaries would hand to
Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat
7 assault on Israel, the Israeli security establishment is looking back on his words in a new light: as part of an effort to create the
illusion that Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the US and European Union, was limiting its embrace of violence to focus on governance
Israeli officials now acknowledge that a sense of complacency had set in around Hamas
In recent years, the military had greatly reduced its surveillance of the Gaza border fence, relying on electronic sensors and transferring
troops out of the area to guard settlements in the West Bank
As Israeli analyst Chen Artzi Sror wrote recently in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, ambitious military intelligence analysts preferred to
focus on Iran and Syria because working on Palestinian issues was not considered of existential importance
The overarching sentiment was that Hamas had been deterred, and that the real challenges lay further afield
rise to it is one of intimate enemies
Sinwar and the Israelis have been watching and analyzing one another for decades
the first Palestinian uprising was underway
He later took on the task of rooting out Palestinian collaborators with Israel, and was responsible for killing four of them
Israeli military authorities, at the time still operating inside Gaza, sent him to life in prison in 1989
Behind bars, Sinwar achieved deep fluency in Hebrew and Israeli society, regularly reading newspapers along with the biographies of key
He also became the uncontested leader of Hamas prisoners
personally beheaded.Officials describe him as a cold-blooded, magnetic leader; a compact, sinewy man whose close-cropped hair and beard have
by now mostly turned white.In the early 2000s, while in prison, Sinwar began experiencing headaches and blurred vision
He was taken to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba where a surgeon removed a brain tumor, saving his life
He kept talking about the day he would be released
It was October 18, 2011, when Israel exchanged more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held by Hamas, Gilad Shalit
I tried to tell them they were wrong
Hamas is a mission for your whole life
It took him only a week to return to his connections and activities
replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was sent to Qatar
Bank newspaper Al Ayyam said by phone
only the attack, but also how Hamas would rule in its aftermath
Jewish scientists and experts in the fields of medicine, engineering, technology, civil and military industry for a while and do not let
As part of these efforts, he collaborated with the Palestinian Authority to negotiate Israeli work permits for some 18,000 Gazans, allowing
them to work as day laborers within Israel
It was some of these workers who Israeli security officials say drew maps of the communities and made lists of local families to orient the
Hamas militants before Oct
Since the attacks, Sinwar has not issued any statements or spoken to the press
Meanwhile, 75 miles away from where the attacks took place, a poster hangs on the wall of the defense ministry in Tel Aviv
The plan is to fill the poster with marks
