According to the Jewish Chronicle, citing Israeli military sources, Hamas is losing control over some smaller terrorist groups in Gaza. The report indicates that some smaller organizations, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Mujahideen Brigades, the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, have dissociated themselves and no longer follow the directives of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. These groups are responsible for holding an unspecified number of hostages, both dead and alive. According to the Chronicle, an estimated 22 handcuffed hostages are still alive out of a total of 108 still in Gaza, and are being used as human shields to protect Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. Israel reportedly had several opportunities to eliminate the Hamas leader, but the order was never given in order to avoid risking the hostages who are close to him.
According to some security sources, smaller groups have been planning a coup to take over the leadership for months, due to strong disagreements with Sinwar over the identity and number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in a possible hostage deal. While Sinwar insists on the priority release of Hamas prisoners, these groups are demanding that their prisoners also be included in the list. They also say that no concessions should be made to Israel, arguing that any deal must include the release of all terrorists from Israeli prisons, including the 1,236 serving life sentences for murder.
They also oppose Israel’s proposal to deport prisoners who will be released by Israel as part of the deal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This requirement is unacceptable to Israel and appears to be frowned upon by Egypt and Qatar as well. The rigid stance of these smaller groups, which are hidden in tunnels stretching from al-Shati camp in northern Gaza to large areas between Khan Yunis and Rafah, has angered Sinwar, especially after the groups followed his orders on October 7, further worsening relations. These internal tensions, while rarely acknowledged, have been a significant obstacle to a hostage deal. Complicating matters is the fact that Sinwar relies on the prisoners for his personal safety.
What Yahya Sinwar Wants
Sinwar’s main demands are an end to the war and the withdrawal of the IDF from the entire Gaza Strip. He is also seeking American guarantees that Israel will not continue the war after the hostage deal is completed. This is a response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated public announcements that the war will end only after the destruction of Hamas and the release of the hostages. Sinwar also insists that Israel promise, with the backing of the American guarantee, not to kill him once he agrees to release the hostages in his possession even though he knows full well that Israel will never give up on his elimination.
The Philadelphia Corridor
Another sticking point in recent talks is the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt, crossed by tunnels used for smuggling. To restore its military power, Hamas urgently needs to regain control of this corridor, which allows it to resume arms smuggling, as it did in the two decades before October 7, with significant Israeli responsibility. Netanyahu strongly opposes this, although he knows this position could jeopardize the agreement. This comes despite Egypt’s promise to install underground surveillance facilities and build an iron wall to stop smuggling, but Israel remains skeptical of Egypt’s promises. The Philadelphia Corridor was established after Israel withdrew from Sinai in 1982, following the peace agreement with Egypt. It is a strip of land about 15 kilometers long and eight kilometers wide, which runs along the southern border of the Gaza Strip, from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea. As Hamas consolidated itself as a resistance movement and then a terrorist group, it managed to take control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, also dominating smuggling through the Philadelphia Corridor. The smuggling route ran from Iran, across the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, to Sinai, and from there to Gaza, turning the corridor into a well-organized conduit for the trafficking of weapons, money, and people. This included long-range rockets, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, and the transfer of Iranian experts to train Hamas militants or send local Gazan fighters abroad for training.
Yaya Sinwar Wants to Blow Up the West Bank
Today, Israel is monitoring the area to prevent the passage of weapons and other contraband. Talks in Cairo have resumed, but a final agreement still seems a long way off. Israeli sources say Sinwar is buying time, delaying his responses in the hope of a wider regional war that could divert the IDF’s attention from Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas is encouraging terrorist activity in the West Bank to further pressure the IDF. According to Israeli intelligence, Sinwar has instructed Zaher Jabarin, who was freed in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit, to activate terrorists to further distract the IDF. Jabarin, who currently operates from Turkey, is considered Hamas’s main financier and, according to Israeli sources, has recently transferred large sums of money from Iran to fuel terrorism in the West Bank, hence the IDF military operation on Wednesday, August 28. The issue of financing Hamas is central; there are no guarantees that Qatar, which today has taken on the role of mediator even if it continues to support the jihadist group, will stop financing the organization once the conflict is over. Just as Iran remains a giant question mark, which in turn arms and finances Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq.
