Top ex-Hamas minister blames Gaza ‘madmen’ for war, says Palestinians do not support them
A former top Hamas official says Gaza “madmen’’ including infamous leader Yahya Sinwar caused the war and that everyday Palestinians do not support them, according to a newly released interrogation video.
Yousef al-Mansi, an ex-communications minister for the Palestinian terror organization, surrendered to Israel — and proceeded to slam Sinwar as the boss of a group of crazies who threw the Jewish state and Gaza into horrific conflict again by orchestrating the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 people, the Times of Israel reported.
“A madman threw a big stone,” al-Mansi said, summing it up for Israel’s Shin Bet interrogators in a video published Sunday.
“This is a group of madmen that Sinwar leads. They destroyed the Gaza Strip. Set it back 200 years,” he said.
Al-Mansi described Sinwar as a man who suffers “delusions of grandeur” and claimed that no civilians in Gaza support Hamas or its leadership after more than two months of war have devastated the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza’s Hamas-tied Health Ministry estimates that more than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and children, with the United Nations and independent research groups estimating that a majority of northern Gaza’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, too.
“People in the Gaza Strip say that Sinwar and his group destroyed us,” al-Mansi said. “I have not seen anyone in the Gaza Strip who supports Sinwar, nobody likes Sinwar. There are people who, day and night, pray that God will free us from him.”
As with other members of Hamas whose interrogations were filmed and released to the public, al-Mansi added that the group knew the Oct. 7 attack stood against the values of Islam, which forbids the killing of women, children and seniors.
“What they did is unacceptable according to logic, religion or intellect,” al-Mansi said.
The condemnation by the former Hamas official came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted the latest wave of Hamas surrenders in Gaza, calling on more members of the terror group to give up and no longer fight for Sinwar.
“They are laying down their weapons and turning themselves in to our heroic soldiers,” Netanyahu said of the surrenders in recent days.
“I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for Sinwar. Surrender now,” he added.
Last week, the IDF encircled Sinwar’s home but believe he escaped and is hiding somewhere in Hamas’ underground tunnel system.
