JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel has begun its new campaign to strike Hamas across wider areas of the Gaza Strip and permanently remove the terror group’s power.
As explosions tore through the night skies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “As we promised, we have launched a powerful campaign against Hamas, ‘Gideon’s Chariots.’ IDF forces are simply entering with force into the Gaza Strip with a dual goal: defeating Hamas and freeing our hostages.”
The damage is devastating. However, the military campaign appears to be achieving one key goal: to isolate Hamas and destroy its leadership as a strategy to free the hostages and erase the Hamas threat.
Displaced Palestinian refugee Tamer Hussin stated, “Nights of terror, every day is terror. We live in terror, we wake up in terror, and we sleep in terror. Our children are terrified.”
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There is no official confirmation, but Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday that he believes Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar was killed in the bombing of the underground command compound below the European Hospital last week.
Muhammad was the younger brother of Former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7th, 2023, attack.
Another brother, Zakaria Sinwar, was killed in an airstrike on Saturday night, according to media outlets in Gaza.
In another development, Israel Defense Forces International Spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani posted on X about exclusive intelligence that was uncovered.
Shoshani wrote, “Documents recovered by the IDF from inside Gaza reveal a list of operatives in Hamas’ Khan Yunis 3rd Battalion. Among them, Hassan Aslih, listed by name, military number, and unit: the so-called ‘Media Platoon’. Aslih was a Hamas operative who posed as a journalist. On October 7, he infiltrated Israeli territory alongside armed terrorists, filming scenes of murder, arson, and looting. His footage wasn’t news coverage, but it was part of the attack itself, intended to glorify terror.”
At the same time, Israel is now actively engaged in negotiating to free the remaining hostages, force Hamas into exile, disarm all of Gaza, and end the war.
Meanwhile, the IDF is allowing humanitarian aid back into Gaza, but with renewed efforts to ensure Hamas doesn’t steal it, as the terror group has frequently done in recent months.
President Trump, back from his trip to visit three Arab states, keeps batting away accusations that he’s sidelining Israel or is having trouble with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump said Netanyahu is an angry man, but has every right to be, given the brutal atrocities Hamas has committed against Israel since October 7th.
“You gotta remember, October 7th was one of the worst days in the history of the world,” Trump observed. “I think not just, not just local to this region. It was one of the worst, most atrocious attacks anyone’s ever seen.”