JERUSALEM \u2013 Yahya Sinwar, Hamas\u2019 top leader in Gaza, his younger brother, Muhammed, and two other senior military commanders of the Iranian-backed Islamist terror group \u2013\u00a0Rafa\u2019a Salameh and Mohammad Deif \u2013 are considered to be the worst killers from the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All are now the most wanted terrorists by Israel.<\/p>\n
As the IDF gears up for what could be its fiercest battle yet against Hamas, the army dropped leaflets over Gaza\u2019s second most populous city on Thursday, calling on residents of the Hamas stronghold to share any information about the whereabouts of the four men and offering a substantial financial reward \u2013 some $1 million in total \u2013 for anyone brave enough to come forward.<\/p>\n
All four terrorists were born and raised in Khan Younis, a city about two miles east of the Mediterranean Sea, and Sinwar, who already has the nickname \u2018the Butcher of Khan Younis,\u2019 for his violent and cruel torture methods against his enemies, both Israeli and Palestinian, is widely seen as the mastermind of the massacre of Israeli civilians carried out by thousands of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, sparking the current war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israeli political and military leaders have referred to Sinwar as a \u2018dead man walking.\u2019<\/p>\n
So, who are the four men Israel is willing to dole out a million dollars for?<\/p>\n
Wanted:\u00a0Yahya Sinwar<\/strong><\/p>\n Position:\u00a0Hamas leader in Gaza\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bounty: $400,000<\/strong><\/p>\n Recently described as \u2018a dead man walking,\u2019 Yahya Sinwar, who turned 61 at the end of October,\u00a0was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp when the region was part of Egypt.\u00a0According to multiple sources, he has always been a militant activist and joined Hamas not long after its founding in 1987. Two years later, he was arrested by Israel for his involvement in the abduction and killing of two Israelis, as well as the torturing and murder of four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators. He was sentenced to life in prison and\u00a0ended up serving 22 years in an Israeli jail until his release in 2011\u00a0as part of a prisoner exchange for the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.<\/p>\n During his time in jail, Sinwar\u00a0became a prominent and influential figure among the other\u00a0Hamas prisoners and learned to speak fluent Hebrew. He has a deep understanding of Israeli society, those who have met and studied him say, pointing out that he is both charismatic and extreme, with strong ideological and religious beliefs. He is not afraid to die or sacrifice himself for the Palestinian cause and truly believes that he can lead the Palestinian people to destroy Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wanted:\u00a0Mohammad Sinwar<\/strong><\/p>\n Position:\u00a0Commander of Hamas\u2019 Southern Brigade<\/strong><\/p>\n Bounty: $300,000\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mohammad Sinwar, Yahya\u2019s younger brother by a few years, joined Hamas\u2019 military wing in the early 1990s and also spent a few years imprisoned for terrorist activities. Upon his release, the younger Sinwar upped his militaristic activities with Hamas, taking part in several deadly terror attacks against Israel in the mid-1990s before becoming commander of the terror group\u2019s Khan Younis Brigade in 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2006, according to reports, Mohammed Sinwar was involved in a deadly attack against Israeli soldiers on Israel\u2019s border that resulted in the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He was then part of the secretive Hamas cell that held Shalit captive in Gaza for more than five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the younger\u00a0Sinwar is considered to be of lower rank than his leader brother, the two are very close, according to experts. \u2018He is involved in decision-making and was very involved in planning the Oct. 7 attack with him,\u2019 Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University,\u00a0told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wanted:\u00a0Rafa\u2019a Salameh<\/strong><\/p>\n Position:\u00a0Commander of Khan Younis Battalion\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bounty: $200,000\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Currently, the commander of the Hamas battalion where most of Israel\u2019s fighting is now focused, Milshtein said Rafa\u2019a Salameh was not generally\u00a0considered a prominent figure and was most likely to have been\u00a0included on the list because, like the others, he was born and raised in Khan Younis. Milshtein also said putting him in Israeli military crosshairs serves to weaken the enemy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018When all the efforts are focused on Khan Younis and you want to make the enemy weaker, then you put him on the list, that is why he is one of the four,\u2019 he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wanted:\u00a0Mohammad Deif<\/strong> Bounty: $100,000\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Notably, Mohammad Deif, long considered to be enemy number one for Israel and considered as senior in Hamas as Yahya Sinwar, has a lower bounty than the other three.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the top commander of Hamas\u2019 military wing, the\u00a0Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Deif, 58, is also thought to have been involved in planning the brutal Oct. 7 attacks. A master\u00a0bombmaker, Deif played an instrumental role in developing Hamas\u2019 military capabilities, Israeli military and intelligence officials have said, including building up its rocket arsenal and attack strategy, as well as helping to design the subterranean tunnel system, which snakes for miles below the coastal enclave and which Israel is now trying to eradicate.\u00a0<\/p>\n A former actor, Deif, is a master of disguise and has long eluded the Israelis, even surviving several assassination attempts. It is believed that\u00a0Deif, who is sometimes referred to as \u2018the cat with nine lives,\u2019 has been confined to a wheelchair since an Israeli attack in 2006 during which he\u00a0also lost an eye and an arm. However, Israel\u2019s arch-enemy keeps a very low profile, rarely making public appearances \u2013 the last known photo of him is at least three decades ago.<\/p>\n Milshtein, who has studied Hamas\u2019 most elusive warrior for years, told Fox that he is \u2018far more important than Salameh, of course, but someone in Israel tried to make him angry or make a joke out of him by making him worth less.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n In the deck of playing cards, Deif, shown as a one-armed mannequin, is king.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s unlikely anyone will call the number on that flyer,\u2019 Milshtein told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018There is a beehive surrounding Sinwar and he is very confident about his position in Gaza and inside Hamas,\u2019 said Milshtein, who previously headed the department for Palestinian affairs in the IDF\u2019s military intelligence unit.\u00a0\u2018I would be very surprised if anyone would betray him or give Israel any important information about his location.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Israeli forces have been engaged in operations in Khan Younis since early December, when a week-long cease-fire with Hamas ended. On Dec. 6, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces had reached and encircled Sinwar\u2019s home, although Israel\u2019s most wanted terrorist was obviously not home.<\/p>\n \u2018His\u00a0home\u00a0is not his castle, and he can flee, but it is only a matter of time until we find him,\u2019 Netanyahu said in a brief statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n As well as Sinwar, Israel has said it will seek out and assassinate other members of Hamas\u2019 political and military leadership wherever they are in the world. Last week, IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza were given packs of playing cards, similar to those created for U.S. troops during the Iraq war, depicting the most wanted Hamas terrorists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yahya Sinwar, shown as a rat hiding in a tunnel, is the ace card.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite making clear that these brutal killers are in Israel\u2019s sights, after more than 70 days of fighting \u2013 and an estimated 7,000 dead terrorists and thousands more captured \u2013 only a handful of Hamas\u2019 top tier have been taken out.<\/p>\n Among the top figures killed in fighting so far is Rawhi Mushtaha, a political and strategic leader, considered to be Sinwar\u2019s \u2018twin\u2019 and the man said to be most knowledgeable about the Palestinian prisoners Hamas is hoping to exchange for more than 120 Israeli hostages, including women and children, that it brutally kidnapped on Oct. 7 and still holds.\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition, the IDF and Israel\u2019s internal security agency, Shin Bet, on Dec. 5 said several senior Hamas operatives\u00a0from the military brigades of northern Gaza had been eliminated, including Ahmed Al-Ghandoor.\u00a0According to the information shared, Al-Ghandoor was part of the military wing\u2019s inner circle and had been responsible for directing and managing all the group\u2019s terror operations in Northern Gaza.<\/p>\n Another senior\u00a0member of the Islamist organization\u2019s general military council to be eliminated was Ayman Noufal, who was head of Hamas\u2019 central command. Noufal was killed by an Israeli airstrike\u00a0early on in the war, Hamas\u00a0confirmed in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told Fox News Digital that the \u2018most wanted\u2019 leaflets dropped by the IDF over Khan Younis were symbolic of what will likely be one of the \u2018toughest battles for Israel in this war.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Hamas used the cease-fire to prepare for this battle,\u2019 he said, adding that Sinwar and the others identified as top tier by Israel hail from the place that \u2018could soon be described as Hamas\u2019 last stand.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Israel has\u00a0other top targets in its sights but the killing or capture of these men might signal a psychological win for the Israelis and even\u00a0a defeat for the Iran-backed group in Gaza,\u2019 Schanzer said.\u2019I don\u2019t believe Gazans will turn them over, but these men have to be feeling the heat even more right now, with their names plastered all over war-torn Gaza.\u2019<\/p>\n\n JERUSALEM \u2013 Yahya Sinwar, Hamas\u2019 top leader in Gaza, his younger brother, Muhammed, and two other senior military commanders of the Iranian-backed Islamist terror group \u2013\u00a0Rafa\u2019a Salameh and Mohammad Deif \u2013 are considered to be the worst killers from the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.\u00a0 All are now the most wanted terrorists by Israel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Position:\u00a0Commander of Hamas military wing\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n