Israel wants the October 7 planner

Probably more than anything, Israel wants to get to and eliminate the man who planned the October 7 atrocities on Israeli soil. Yahya Sinwar is the Hamas political leader in Gaza and is on Israel's Most Wanted list. He is believed to be in a bunker in southern Gaza, possibly under the city of Khan Yunis. Either he was initially underground in one of the many tunnels under Gaza City and then moved south, also through tunnels, or he has always been in southern Gaza, knowing that the Israel Defence Forces would start their campaign by hammering the north. Several Hamas leaders are known to have been killed in the north during Israeli airstrikes. Sinwar is said to have not only planned the October 7 brutalities and massacres but is also now the chief strategist behind the drip-drip hostage releases to get as many jailed Palestinians out of Israeli prisons as possible. He will no doubt also be involved in regrouping his Hamas fighters and preparing them for whatever Israel has in store once the war gets going again, if it ever does. It is estimated that Hamas may have lost between 1,000 and 1,500 members since the Israeli counter-attack began. He will still have more than 35,000, and possiby closer to 40,000, fighters left to destribute around Gaza. So as soon as the Israel Defence Forces gets the green light from Binyamin Netanhyahu to continue the war, Sinwar will have a target on his back. But because Hamas is largely operating from underground, we may never know whether Sinwar is alive or dead.