CIA Director Says Hamas Member Sinwar Under Increasing Pressure to End War

CIA Director Bill Burns said in a closed-door briefing over the weekend that the agency believes Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is under increasing pressure from the terror group’s commanders to accept a cease-fire deal, CNN reported Tuesday.

The report is based on the account of a person who was present at the discussion at Allen & Company’s annual summer retreat in Sun Valley on Saturday.

Burns told the gathering that Sinwar was not “concerned about his mortality” but was bothered by growing Palestinian resentment over the suffering caused by the war that began with the devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Senior Hamas officials are weary of the war, which has now lasted for ten months, and are pressuring Sinwar to accept an Israeli proposal promoted by US President Joe Biden in late May. Discussions on the proposal are ongoing, with officials expressing either optimism that a deal can be reached or concern that the moment could be missed.

At the conference, Burns said Israeli and Hamas leaders must seize the opportunity to reach an agreement, the source said.

The CIA declined to comment, CNN said.

According to the report, US intelligence believes Sinwar is hiding in tunnels under the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.

A US official told CNN that Sinwar was no longer interested in leading Gaza and that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the idea of ​​an “interim governance” in which control of the Palestinian enclave would be handed over to a third party. Previous reports had indicated that the leadership would be comprised of Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas and trained by the United States.

Burns is playing a key role in ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement with American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

These remarks are consistent with recent media reports that US intelligence services have assessed Hamas as seriously weakened by the Israeli military offensive, which came in response to the October 7 attack and aims to destroy the terrorist group, overthrow its regime in Gaza and free the hostages who were kidnapped during the assault.

However, reports in recent days also indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is toughening Israel’s demands in the negotiations.

The terror group reportedly said it was still willing to negotiate despite an Israeli strike Saturday that targeted Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif. Israel has not officially confirmed that the attack killed Deif.

The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Israel in which the terrorists killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostage in Gaza.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 38,000 people have been killed or presumed dead in the fighting so far, but the toll cannot be verified and does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel claims to have killed some 15,000 fighters in the fighting and about 1,000 terrorists inside the country in the October 7 attack.