No Gazan likes Hamas’s Sinwar: Ex-Minister tells Israeli intelligence

Tel Aviv, Dec 11: Yosef Almansi, a former Communications Minister in the Gaza Strip, told Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency that senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is hugely unpopular in the besieged enclave and that nobody liked him.
Almansi made the remarks while being interrogated by Shin Bet officials.
Sinwar “has delusions of grandeur”, he was quoted as saying in a statement released by the agency on Sunday.
“He feels like he is above everyone else… I have not seen anybody in the Gaza Strip who supports Sinwar,” the former Minister told the Shin Bet interrogators.
“Nobody likes Sinwar. There are people who, day and night, pray that God will free us from him.”
Almansi went on to say that “the achievements of Hamas are the killing and destruction of more than 60 per cent of the buildings, infrastructure, streets, and public facilities” in the Gaza Strip.
“This is a group of lunatics that Sinwar leads. They destroyed the Gaza Strip. They set it back 200 years,” he added.
The leader of the militant group within the Gaza Strip, Sinwar is the founder of the Hamas security service known as Majd, which manages internal security matters, investigates suspected Israeli agents and tracks down Israeli intelligence and security services officers.
Netanyahu calls on Hamas men to surrender
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called upon Hamas terrorists to surrender to Israeli troops and urged them not to sacrifice their lives for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have entered the Khan Younis area in South Gaza where Sinwar is reported to be hiding. Netyanahu’s statement comes after the IDF Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, had in a statement said that there were signs that Hamas was collapsing.
The Prime Minister in a video statement on Sunday said, “In the past few days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered before our forces. They put down their weapons and turn themselves over to our brave soldiers.” (IANS)