“in recent weeks, we have identified clear cracks in hamas under the power of the blows we are raining on them. we see changes. we see weakness,” israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said at a news conference.
the latest operation “also contributes to this, whatever its results are. hamas’s commanders are hiding in underground tunnels and are cut off from their forces in the field. the gazan population understands more and more the magnitude of the disaster that hamas has inflicted on it,” he said.
the military said that salama joined hamas in the early 1990s, has headed its khan younis brigade since 2016 and was one of the masterminds of the october 7 attacks on southern israel. his elimination significantly impedes the terror group’s military capabilities, it said.
early on sunday, afp, the french news agency, reported that hamas was withdrawing from the talks. one of the group’s top officials later issued a denial, saying it wasn’t going to allow netanyahu “to block the way to reaching an agreement that stops the aggression against our people.”
tamir hayman, a former head of israel’s military intelligence, said in an online column for channel 12 that the assassination was the right move.