‘Crazy people’ led by Yahya Sinwar ‘destroyed Gaza’, says former high-ranking Hamas official

Former high-ranking Hamas official Yousef al-Mansi has accused a group of “crazy people” led by Yahya Sinwar for instigating the recent war, stating that the general Palestinian population does not support them, according to a report. According to The Times of Israel report, al-Mansi, who served as the communications minister for Hamas in the past, made these revelations during his interrogation by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, the footage of which was published on Sunday.

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Israel has called Sinwar, the enclave’s leader and the guy responsible for most of Hamas’s catastrophic 7 October attack, a “walking dead man,” along with the other prominent members of the terror group. “They destroyed the Gaza Strip. Set it back 200 years,” al-Mansi said in translated excerpts provided by the Shin Bet. “There is no opportunity to live,” he added. In the 14-minute video published by the agency, al-Mansi said, “People in the Gaza Strip say that Sinwar and his group destroyed us, we must get rid of them.” He said in the video that he arrived for his questioning on December 7 and had been at the facility for three days, indicating the session occurred on Sunday. The Shin Bet did not provide further information about when al-Mansi was arrested. “I have not seen anyone in the Gaza Strip who supports Sinwar; nobody likes Sinwar. There are people who, day and night, pray that God will free us from him,” he said, adding that if he were in Gaza now, he would go and demonstrate against Sinwar. Al-Mansi said that Gaza’s ruler has “delusions of grandeur,” and that he “feels like he is above everyone else. Acts only as he thinks. He makes decisions without consulting anyone.” The former Hamas minister said the October 7 massacre — when thousands of Hamas fighters invaded Israel’s south and killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians murdered amid brutal atrocities, and took another estimated 240 people hostage — was “the opposite of Islam.” “This is heresy, madness. What they did is unacceptable according to logic, religion, or intellect. Those who are responsible for this are Sinwar and his group,” he said, according to the excerpts, adding that the entire Gaza Strip was paying the price for the onslaught. “The achievement of Hamas is killing and the destruction of more than 60 per cent of buildings, infrastructure, streets, and public facilities (in the Gaza Strip),” he added. Al-Mansi said in the video that as a result of the war, “over 90%, 95%” of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had been decimated, adding, “Al-Qassam is finished.” “This is my assessment, without any details, but whoever sees the destruction in the Gaza Strip will say that it’s more… If there’s something left they would be scattered.” Hamas warns hostages doomed unless demands met Meanwhile, Hamas warned Sunday that no hostages would leave Gaza alive unless its demands for prisoner releases are met, while the World Health Organization said the territory’s health system was collapsing after more than two months of war. In a televised statement, a Hamas spokesman said Israel will not receive “their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance.” Senior Hamas official Bassem Neim said in late November the movement was “ready to release all soldiers in exchange for all our prisoners”. Israel says there are still 137 hostages in Gaza, while activists say around 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails. With inputs from agencies