After Yahya Sinwar was chosen to replace slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh this past August, he sent an order to the Hamas leader in the Shomron to revive the practice of suicide bombings in Israel, Arab intelligence officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Several days later, a Palestinian tried to blow up a shul in Tel Aviv but b’chasdei Hashem and in the zechus of limmud Torah, the bomb prematurely exploded, killing only him.

“What a blessing it is that my bones become shrapnel that blow apart the usurping Zionist Jews,” said the attacker, Ja’far Sa’d Saeed Muna, a member of Hamas’s armed wing, in a video released later by Hamas.

In the past week, Hamas claimed responsiblity for two shooting attacks, one in Yaffo that left seven dead, and a second in Be’er Sheva, which took the life of a female Border Police officer.

According to the WSJ report, Hamas has been divided for years between hard-liners such as Sinwar, who publicly orders suicide bombings, and “terrorists in suits” who want to main a veil of political legitimacy.

The report claims that Hamas political leaders in Doha, led by Haniyeh, were surprised by the timing of the October 7, 2023 assault and according to the Arab officials, “while publicly praising the Oct. 7 attack, they began privately criticizing Sinwar as a ‘megalomaniac.’

Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal and others were talking about Sinwar in “no uncertain terms,” said Ehud Yaari, a veteran Israeli columnist who interviewed Sinwar in prison and says he maintains a communication channel with him. “That he made a mistake, that he’s a political amateur.”

On the other hand, Sinwar privately criticized Haniyeh and Meshaal, calling them the “hotel guys,” Yaari said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)