Hamas Commander: Our Leaders Betrayed Us

As Hamas crumbles, literally — one building and one tunnel after another — and figuratively, with the desperation of its decimated operatives ever more apparent, one of its commanders, known as Abu Mohammed, in Gaza has publicly condemned the terror group’s leaders — Ismail Haniya and Yahya Sinwar — for having “betrayed” the group’s fighters. Almost all of Hamas’ leaders, including Haniya, Khaled Meshaal, and Mousa Abu Marzouk, are living in five-star hotels in Doha, where they watch the fighting in Gaza from afar, and count the money they have each stolen over the years from funds donated to support the people of Gaza. The only senior Hamas leader known to be in Gaza is Sinwar, head of its military wing, but instead of joining his troops in fighting the IDF, the way Israeli commanders lead their troops into battle, he prefers to stay hidden in a bunker. More on this Hamas commander’s rage at the terror group’s leaders, who he claims gave the orders for the October 7 attack without considering the consequences, can be found here: “Hamas commander: Haniyeh and Sinwar ‘destroyed us,'” Jerusalem Post, November 8, 2023:

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 speak is that we want to raise our voice to the world. My dear Gaza is under bombardment,” he lamented: “The problem is because of our leadership. The commander pointed to the fact that Haniyeh and other leaders live in splendor abroad while he’s sustaining himself on some dates and olive oil.

This rage against the leaders of Hamas who ordered the October 7 massacres to take place, without considering what Israel was capable of doing in response, and who since October 7 have not shared any of the hardships endured both by the commanders, and the low-level combatants, in Gaza, is palpable. This Hamas commander is well aware that not one of the senior leaders has joined the battle against the IDF, a stark contrast to the way the Israelis operate, with the IDF commanders leading their soldiers into battle. He knows the Hamas senior leadership is living in luxury in Doha, save for Sinwar, who, since the very beginning of the war, been hiding in a bunker in Gaza.

Abu Mohammed also accused Sinwar of “acting like a street fighter,” saying Hamas terrorists were told to “do what they like” when attacking Israel.

A curious charge against Sinwar. Does “Abu Mohammed” regret the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and blame Sinwar for giving the okay to fentanyl-fueled killers to “do what they like”? It sounds as if he regrets those murderous attacks, which Sinwar’s open-ended instructions let loose, not because he found them morally abhorrent, but because they led inexorably to the Israelis to rise up as one to smash the terror group with a ferocity Hamas never expected..

The commander additionally stated that contact had been lost with Hamas’s political bureau, saying “We don’t know what direction to go in next. We don’t know which path to take. They destroyed us.”…

That is an admission by a Hamas commander of despair and defeat: “We in Hamas are leaderless, rudderless. From Doha, there is no leadership. From Yahya Sinwar, sitting in his bunker, there is only silence.”

The commander Abu Mohammed feels, rightly, betrayed by the Hamas leaders. And no doubt others at his level, and below, share his fury at the senior leadership. Those leaders take care to stay far from Gaza, living in luxury in Doha while the Hamas combatants both above and below ground in the Strip, are being methodically destroyed by the IDF.

That this commander has so bitterly, and openly, criticized both Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar shows that the terror group faces great disarray in its ranks. The commanders are tired of not having clear direction from above; they were only told to go into Israel on October 7 and “kill anyone they wanted,” but not told of the consequences; now much of Gaza lies in ruins, and Hamas has been decimated. And more and more people, including Hamas fighters, have been learning that Ismail Haniyeh has a fortune of $3 billion, Khaled Meshaal has a fortune of $4 billon, and Mousa Abu Marzouk has a fortune of $4 billion, all of it stolen from the money foreign donors provided for the people of Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas combatants and commanders, such as Abu Mohammed, who are fighting and dying in Gaza, are now living on dates and olive oil.

In Gaza, Hamas combatants are now in despair. Those who actually have to face the ferocity and complexity of the IDF attacks, every hour of every day and night, feel abandoned by their leaders. They don’t know where to put their feet and hands. They don’t know when the IDF will collapse the next tunnel, killing all those inside, or strike the next above-ground hideout of weapons and rocket launchers in a kindergarten, a mosque, an apartment building, a hospital. These Hamas terrorists are now, as Milton described Samson, “eyeless in Gaza.”