Wall Street Journal: Sinwar rejects Egyptian offer to leave Gaza

WORLD, Oct. 22 (YPA) – Yahya Sinwar, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, rejected an Egyptian offer to leave the Gaza Strip, where he was killed last week in a fierce fighting with Israeli occupation forces, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported .

The newspaper stated that Cairo presented Sinwar with an offer at the beginning of the Israeli aggression against Gaza. This offer would have allowed him to leave the enclave in exchange for Egypt negotiating for the release of prisoners on behalf of Hamas, but he declined.

Sinwar told intermediaries in the ceasefire negotiations, “I am not under siege; I am on Palestinian land.”

According to the newspaper, intermediaries revealed that Sinwar advised Hamas to appoint a council of leaders to manage the transitional period after his death. He had prepared himself for martyrdom following the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in southern Beirut on September 27.

Sinwar informed Hamas members that the Israeli occupation was likely to make concessions to end the war after his death. Arab intermediaries familiar with his messages quoted him as saying, “In negotiations with the Israeli occupation, Hamas will be in a stronger position.”

On Friday, Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, officially announced the martyrdom of Yahya Sinwar after a clash with the occupation forces in Rafah.

It is worth noting that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas announced on August 6 that Sinwar had been elected as the head of its political bureau, succeeding the martyr Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by the Israeli occupation in his residence during a visit to Tehran at the end of July.

@E.Y.M