Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday evening released a seized letter in Gaza written by a senior Hamas commander who was killed. The letter details the terrorist organization’s losses during the war. Rafe Salama, who commanded Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade and served as deputy to Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif — before both were killed in an airstrike in July — said that at the time of writing the letter, 70 percent of Hamas’s weapons had been destroyed and half of its terrorist forces had been wiped out. “In the letter, Rafe Salama, who was killed by us in July, writes to the Sinwar brothers describing the situation: 70 percent of the weapons have been destroyed, 95 percent of the rockets have been eliminated, 50 percent of the terrorists have been killed or wounded, and many have fled, leaving only 20 percent, according to him. This is a significant loss that hurts Hamas and is felt by its senior commanders,” Gallant said, adding: “He is asking the Sinwar brothers for help, but of course they cannot save him. Why? Because we are continuing the effort that began in October, which is going step by step, and it reaches all the senior officials of Hamas. This is what he wrote to the Sinwar brothers, who we will also reach soon.” Also yesterday, the IDF announced that last Wednesday, in a joint IDF-ISA operation directed by IDF intelligence, the Israeli air force struck and eliminated terrorist Abdallah Abu Reala of the Hamas Shati Battalion. Reala took part in the October 7 massacre and was involved in attacks against IDF troops throughout the war and was one of the terrorists responsible for the captivity of female soldier Noa Marciano, who was kidnapped during the October 7 massacre and killed in Shifa hospital in Gaza City. In a further attack, Ayman Khaled Ahmed Abu Allahyani, a Hamas terrorist who participated in the attack on the Erez humanitarian crossing on 7 October 2023, was eliminated.
Also on the subject of the jihadist leader, Israel would be willing to guarantee safe passage to Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas, to leave Gaza in exchange for the release of the Israeli hostages and the relinquishment of control of the Strip by the organization. “I am ready to guarantee safe passage to Sinwar, his family and anyone who wants to follow him. We want the hostages back,” said Gal Hirsch, the main negotiator for hostages and missing persons. The proposal to allow Sinwar to leave Gaza was put forward a few days ago, however, Hamas has not reacted and no one can say whether it will accept the offer. The initiative aims to find new solutions to reach an agreement since the current negotiations “seem increasingly fragile,” Hirsch explained. “In parallel, I have to develop alternative plans B, C and D to bring the hostages home,” he added. “Time is running out. The hostages don’t have much time.” Hirsch also stressed that so far Hamas “has tried to impose its terms instead of negotiating.” While regarding the six hostages killed in a tunnel in Rafah by Hamas members at the end of August, Hirsch stated that “there will be a price for these murders.” But how viable is this proposal? According to Lion Udler, an Israeli military analyst, “it is a proposal that was evaluated in Israel months ago, at a certain point Sinwar will find himself with a very reduced force and without terrorist capabilities to continue the fighting and being surrounded by hostages will have to make an agreement to free them. So the idea is to let him go abroad so that the hostages are freed and the Gaza Strip will no longer be governed by the terrorist organization Hamas. As for Yahya Sinwar, he will be eliminated later in due course, even if he chooses to hide in Tehran.”
Finally, Olivier Christen, France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor, said that the French authorities had prevented three terrorist plans to target the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris and other cities hosting sporting events. Olivier Christen specified that “the plans included attacks against Israeli institutions or representatives of Israel in Paris” the Olympic competitions, which took place from July 26 to August 11. Christen then declared to France Info that “the Israeli team was not a specific target.” Five people, including a minor, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the three foiled plots against the Summer Games, which took place amid Israel’s war in Gaza and the conflict in Ukraine. The suspects, who face multiple terrorism charges, remain in pretrial detention.
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