Slain terror boss Yahya Sinwar’s brother ‘The Shadow’ recruits ‘thousands of new fighters for next generation of Hamas’
YAHYA Sinwar’s brother Mohammed who has taken over as Hamas leader is said to be working to rebuild the terror group.
The younger Sinwar, dubbed “The Shadow,” is recruiting thousands of young Palestinians to form the new generation of Hamas fighters.
Even though Hamas may be seen as weakened following months of fighting, the group is working on rebuilding its terror army, a retired Israeli brigadier general has claimed.
Amir Avivi told The Wall Street Journal: “We are in a situation where the pace at which Hamas is rebuilding itself is higher than the pace that the [Israel Defense Forces are] eradicating them.
“Mohammed Sinwar is managing everything.”
Mohammed Sinwar replaced the mastermind behind the October 7 massacre after Yahya’s death by Israeli troops in October.
Drone footage captured the humiliating moment the Hamas boss tried to fight off a drone with a stick in a bombed-out building in the Gaza Strip before he was wiped out.
Officials feared his brother’s rise to power would bring a new level of threat as he was seen as more radical than his brother.
The WSJ reports that following Sinwar’s death, Hamas officials tried to form a collective leadership council but the terror group’s fighters opted to to operate autonomously under Mohammed.
He is believed to be around 50 years old and has been operating largely behind the scenes, earning him the nickname “Shadow.“
Like his older brother, he joined Hamas at an early age and was considered close to the head of the group’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif.
But unlike Yahya he has not spent time in Israeli prison and is “less understood by Israel’s security establishment.”
A senior Israeli official from the IDF’s Southern Command said: “We are working hard to find him.”
Mohammed is also believed to have been behind the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 which eventually led to the release of his brother in a prisoner swap.
He has been named by political analysts as Hamas’s most senior commander in Gaza alongside Izz al-Din Haddad – and according to Israeli officials they have the final say in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
Officials believe Israel and Hamas are the closest they have ever been to a ceasefire and hostage release deal as the following hours are considered crucial for the end of the conflict in the Middle East.
Tel Aviv and Hamas were sent a final draft of the deal on Monday which sees the hostages held by the terror group released just 48 hours after the ceasefire is in place.
It is then believed that 34 hostages will be released across the first three phases in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
One of the officials said the hostages released at first will be those “in very bad shape” while the rest of those held in Gaza would follow.
Along with the ones in the worst condition, women, children and the elderly will also be the first to let go.
Israel has reportedly agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 34 hostages.
US President Joe Biden said a deal to secure the release of the hostages is nearly complete and that war-torn Palestine would see a “surge” of aid rushed in once agreed.
He on Monday: “We are on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition.”
He added that the deal – heavily backed by the US – would “free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance”.
Inside the twisted life of Yahya Sinwar
By Nick Parker, Foreign Editor
HIS life was saved twice by Israel – but the monster dubbed “The Hamas Bin Laden” repaid his sworn enemy by masterminding the October 7 horror.
Yahya Sinwar, 61, spent 22 years in an Israeli prison for terrorist murder and kidnap plots and spent every second honing his burning hatred for his captors.
His astonishing rise to the top of the Hamas terror tree came despite being sentenced to four life sentences in 1989 for planning the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians he suspected of working with Israel.
The bearded beast’s life was first saved when he was cured of cancer by an operation in a prison.
Then in 2011 he was freed, among 1,026 others, in a prisoner exchange for a single Israeli soldier in a deal that has been damned by his thousands of victims ever since.
Sinwar taught himself Hebrew and became fluent during his multiple stints as a caged man.
He began reading and studying every Israeli newspaper to probe the weak spots in his enemy’s armour.
The terror master’s deep knowledge of what makes Israelis tick led him to realise the power of the hostage-taking tactic now traumatising the strife-torn Jewish nation.
Yet despite his blood lust and bravado, the Hamas commander “cried like a baby” when he learned he had cancer, his jailer Lieutenant Betty Lahat has revealed.