CIA Director Bill Burns says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar faces increasing power from his own commanders to end Gaza war

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CIA Director Andrew Burns told a closed-door conference that the CIA assessed that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, was under increasing pressure from his own military commanders to accept a ceasefire and end the war with Israel. is coming. Saturday, according to a source who attended.

Sinwar, the key architect of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, is “not worried about his death” but faces pressure over being blamed for the deadly conflict in Gaza, Burns told the conference.

US intelligence officials believe Sinwar is hiding in tunnels beneath his birthplace, Khan Yunis, in Gaza, and is the main decision maker on whether to accept trade for Hamas.

Burns – who has spent months leading the Biden leadership through bitter negotiations – said that more than nine months after the war began, it was incumbent on both the Israeli government and Hamas to take advantage of this time to achieve a ceasefire. To be.

However, the internal forces facing Sinwar went unused over the next two weeks, including the outcry from his own senior commanders who were tired of the war, Burns said, according to the attendee, who was not interviewed. Permission was granted to remain anonymous in an off-the-record conference.

The CIA director was speaking at the once-a-year Allen & Corporate summer retreat in Solar Valley, Idaho, often known as “summer camp for billionaires” because of its lucrative guest list of tech giants, media titans and seniors. Is. Executives who are invited to a secret week-long tournament.

The CIA declined to comment.

The major operation on Sinwar comes as Hamas and Israel agreed to a framework trade deal that President Joe Biden put forward in late May. What US officials have said is being presented as the crux of the promise to end the fighting.

Burns recently returned from his last trip concluding months to Heart East to struggle to advance negotiations on the Gaza ceasefire and hostage trade, alongside other mediators from Qatar and Egypt, as well as the head of Israel’s international agency. Had a meeting together.

On Saturday, Burns said we face a “fragile prospect” and that the chances of a ceasefire going yes are higher than ever, just months after dozens of hostages were freed under a temporary ceasefire in November. However, he stressed that normal level negotiations are always tricky.

The renewed pressure comes after previous discussions failed following a similar series of meetings and exits through Burns in May.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could face a major domestic campaign for attacking a business that would bring home additional hostages held in Gaza. Hundreds of Israeli protesters often take to the streets of Tel Aviv over the federal government’s call for the return of hostages rather than a military operation.

“There are still gaps to close, but we are making progress, the trend is positive,” Biden said Thursday, “and I am determined to get this deal done and end this war, which must end now.” Needed ,

According to Gaza’s Ministry of State, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign in Gaza. According to aid organizations, hundreds of people are considered missing under the debris and thousands are facing crisis, famine and scarcity of shelter.

After a large amount of features are removed within the potential promise, the conversation automatically slows down due to difficulties sending messages from Sinwar as Israel tries to find him ill.

Of the three most senior Hamas leaders in Gaza, Israel is believed to have found and killed only one: Marwan Issa, the second in command of the army wing. Its military chief, Mohammed Deif, was targeted by Israel in a bombing on Saturday, killing about 100 Palestinians and wounding several others, according to Palestinian health officials.

Neither Israel nor the United States have agreed on whether Deif was effectively targeted.

US officials believe Sinwar does not want to rule Gaza and both Israel and Hamas have directly signed off on an “interim governance” plan that could begin a second phase of a ceasefire in which either of them Gaza will not be monitored, a US official informed CNN.

U.S. officials say Qatar has also said it would oust Hamas’s political leadership from its long-held outlying zone if the militant group does not directly sign on to the plan.

In recent Hamas communications seen and reported by The Associated Press, senior Hamas leaders in Gaza called on gang outsiders to accept Biden’s ceasefire proposal, citing heavy losses and dire conditions in Gaza.

Perhaps indicative of their enthusiasm to end the fighting, Hamas recently met its main demand that the ceasefire promise come with respect, saying it would ultimately lead to a permanent ceasefire, a key point in the long run. Talks that Israel rejected.

Netanyahu then insisted that any trade must allow Israel to return to fighting until its war goals are met.

This means a lull in fighting could begin, allowing some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be released before Israel resumes military operations.

The framework proposed by Biden says a permanent ceasefire would be negotiated during a first phase of lull in the fighting, which would last as long as negotiations continue.

At the same time that Burns was speaking, Netanyahu told a news conference that he would not move “even a millimeter” from the framework set by the Biden era, claiming that Hamas had demanded 29 changes to the proposal, but he Refused this. For many.

“There are still difficult issues to resolve,” a source close to the talks told CNN about Burns’ next meeting in Doha. The second source said yes, saying “there’s still plenty of time left.”