TV report: Jerusalem thinks Sinwar delaying hostage deal response in hopes of Iranian attack on Israel

Israel believes Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar is delaying a response to the current hostage-truce proposal in the hope that Iran will attack Israel and help spark the wider conflict he sought to trigger on October 7, according to unnamed sources in Jerusalem quoted by Channel 12 news.

“Sinwar has not given up on his ambition to see a regional war, and he is pinning his hopes on an Iranian attack and an Israeli response, which could bring about a ‘unification of the [various] fronts’ [against Israel],” the TV report quotes the sources saying.

A proposed deal said to be broadly accepted by Israel reportedly provides for the release of 40 living hostages in a “humanitarian category” — women, children, elderly and ill — in return for some 900 Palestinian security prisoners during a 42-day truce.

Hamas officials have publicly said the terms are unacceptable and reiterated demands for an Israeli commitment to end the war and to allow northern Gazans to return home, but have not issued a definitive rejection.