Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down 11 chances to kill Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, months before the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack, Channel 12 reports, citing a senior defense official.
Sinwar was the architect of the October 7 invasion, massacre and mass abduction in southern Israel. He was killed by the IDF in Rafah in October 2024.
According to the official, in February and March 2023, the Shin Bet succeeded in ascertaining Sinwar’s location repeatedly, and told Netanyahu, but he would not greenlight an assassination despite the security agency’s recommendation that he order the strike. He would not even convene officials to discuss the possibility of a strike, says the outlet.
The Prime Minister’s Office denies the account, saying that it has matters backward and that Netanyahu “demanded repeatedly to eliminate the Hamas leadership, but the security leadership stopped it. This is well documented in minutes of the discussions.”
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