Free Republic

CNN cut ties with a freelance photojournalist based in Gaza hours after a photo emerged purportedly showing a top Hamas leader kissing the photographer on the cheek. Freelancer Hassan Eslaiah can be seen in the photo being friendly with Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 massacre that killed 1,400 Israelis. The photo came to light after HonestReporting, a pro-Israel media watchdog group, published a report Wednesday claiming Eslaiah and other photojournalists were embedded with Hamas terrorists on the day they attacked Israel last month.

A senior Hamas commander told the UK's Daily Mail that Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar had "destroyed" the lower levels of the terrorist movement by ordering the October 7 attack, according to a report by the British newspaper on Sunday. The commander, calling himself Abu Mohammed, told the newspaper in an interview over Telegram that originally the plan was to kidnap a few Israeli soldiers, but the orders were changed at the last minute by Hamas military leaders to conduct the massacre which ended up taking place on that tragic Saturday morning a month ago. "Our reason to...

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that people in Gaza could end Israel's invasion sooner by killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar themselves. "The Hamas leadership is responsible. We will get to that leadership," Gallat said in a press conference, per The Times of Israel. "We will get to Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him. If the residents of Gaza get there ahead of us, that will shorten the war." Sinwar, who helped found Hamas' security apparatus, was elected to be the group's leader in the Gaza Strip in 2017. He has been described as a hardliner who rejects any reconciliation with...

Israeli troops on Saturday were hunting a Hamas commander described as Palestine's Osama bin Laden, vowing to find him wherever he was hiding and insisting his days were numbered. Yahya Sinwar, 60, is the current head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He has been arrested by Israel multiple times and spent 24 years in Israeli prisons: he was freed in 2011, as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar is being held responsible for the murder of 1,300 Israelis in the October 7 attack. The U.S. death toll rose to 29 on Saturday,...

Israeli security forces caught the two terrorists who carried out a deadly attack in Elad, four days after they went on a rampage in the city.Israel Police, Shin Bet and IDF capturing the two terrorists who carried out an attack in Elad on May 5 that left three dead (credit: Israel Police, Shin Bet, IDF). IDF forces, Shin Bet officers and police caught the two suspects 19-year-old As'sad al-Rifai and 20-year-old Emad Subhi Abu Shqeir, both from Rumana in the Jenin area of the West Bank, alive in a forested area close to Elad near Park Nahshonim. IDF has confirmed...

Zaher Jabarin, one of Hamas' leaders, has threatened to fire over 1,000 rockets at Israel, Channel 12 News reported. Last year, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar referenced the number 1,111 but did not detail the context. At the time, he said, "We are confident in our ability to obtain our rights and remember the number 1,111." It was assumed then that the number was in reference to how many terrorists Hamas would demand released in the next prisoner swap. Now, Jabarin has clarified, in Sinwar's name, that 1,111 is the number of rockets which will be fired during the first barrage...

The child’s father was a member of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades

An American citizen was reportedly killed fighting for Hamas in the recent conflict with Israel. Joe Truzman, a contributor to Foundation for Defense of Democracies Long War Journal (FDD), wrote on Saturday that “an American citizen known as Osama al-Zebda was fighting with the Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades during the recent conflict. The report notes that al-Zebda was on a US terrorist watch list. His son was featured in videos with Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar on Monday, in which the Hamas commander puts a rifle in the toddler’s hand. His death and the death of his father, a well-known...

Where have we heard that number before? Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the jihad terror group Hamas, on Thursday boasted that if Israel didn’t come across with more ventilators for “Palestinian” coronavirus victims in Gaza, the jihadis “take them by force.” As if that weren’t enough, Sinwar added: “If ventilators are not brought into [Gaza], we’ll take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis.” Of course, Sinwar wasn’t articulating any new imperative for the jihad group: a new genocide of the Jews has always been a cherished Hamas aspiration. As The Palestinian Delusion explains,...

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar warned Israel that "if the Strip is dragged into war, Israel will suffer. It won't evacuate just the towns bordering Gaza, but also Ashdod, Ashkelon, and even Tel Aviv." "Our fingers are still on the trigger, and they'll stay there in order to protect the Palestinian nation. Hamas will be a sword and shield for the Palestinian people." On Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority's Al-Quds newspaper reported that the various local factions - headed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad - ordered their members to cease using explosives along Gaza's border with Israel. The report also claimed that...

An Arab newspaper reported on Saturday that Israel and Qatar are hammering out a deal that would allow Hamas to operate a sea crossing between Gaza and Cyprus. According to the Lebanese Al Akhbar, the prospective seaport is part of a wider Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. While Hamas demands that the crossing be monitored through video cameras, Israel wants both Israeli forces and international elements to monitor the seaport to prevent weapons smuggling. The report comes as a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be gaining traction. A central part of the deal has been Qatar's...

The paychecks of the Hamas members, which were being paid through financial aid by Qatar, were passed on in suitcases in a heavily guarded vehicle. Palestinian protesters pelted the convoy of Qatar’s ambassador to the Palestinians, Mohammed Al-Emadi, with stones Friday as he came to observe the weekly demonstrations along Gaza’s border fence with Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv. Gazan media reported that those leading the attack against Al-Emadi were from the Palestinian faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. PFLP members had earlier refused to take part in the meeting with the...