{"id":262869,"date":"2026-01-29T02:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/262869\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:12:11","slug":"report-netanyahu-turned-down-11-chances-to-kill-hamas-leader-sinwar-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/262869\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Netanyahu turned down 11 chances to kill Hamas leader Sinwar in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down 11 chances to kill Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, months before the terror group\u2019s October 7, 2023, attack, Channel 12 reported Wednesday, citing a senior defense official.<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu\u2019s office vehemently denied the report, saying the premier was in favor of taking out Sinwar, but \u201csecurity leadership stopped it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sinwar, who served as the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, was the architect of the October 7 attacks, during which terrorists kidnapped 251 hostages and killed some 1,200 people in Israel, sparking the war that devastated the Strip for over two years. He was eventually<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/high-likelihood-hamas-leader-oct-7-mastermind-yahya-sinwar-killed-by-troops-in-gaza\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> killed<\/a> in October 2024 during IDF operations in Rafah, over a year after the war begam.<\/p>\n<p>According to the official quoted by Channel 12, in February and March 2023, the Shin Bet succeeded in ascertaining Sinwar\u2019s location nearly a dozen times. The report noted that during these months, Hamas launched rockets into Israel three separate times.<\/p>\n<p>The agency informed Netanyahu each time they were able to locate Sinwar, the report said, telling him that it was prepared for \u201chigh-level elimination operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite the security agency\u2019s repeated recommendation that he order the strikes, Netanyahu refused to\u00a0greenlight an assassination, the source said.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3430773\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-04-04-at-19.40.40-e1733082089831-640x400.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><br \/>\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, on April 4, 2023. (Kobi Gideon\/GPO)<\/p>\n<p>He would not even convene officials to discuss the possibility of a strike, the report added.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Channel 12 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/shin-bet-chief-urged-killing-sinwar-days-before-oct-7-netanyahu-objected-report\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> that then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar asked Netanyahu to approve Sinwar\u2019s assassination on October 1, 2023, six days before the terror group invaded southern Israel and started the Gaza war, but Netanyahu ignored the request.<\/p>\n<p>The Prime Minister\u2019s Office denied Wednesday\u2019s report, stating it had matters backward and that Netanyahu \u201cdemanded repeatedly to eliminate the Hamas leadership, but the security leadership stopped it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is well documented in minutes of the discussions,\u201d Netanyahu\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tIs accurate Israel coverage important to you?\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>If so, we have a request.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Every day during the past two years of war and rising global anti-Zionism and antisemitism, our journalists kept you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down 11 chances to kill Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, months&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-262869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}