Arab negotiators offered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza, early on in the war - but he declined, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the report, in exchange for Sinwar's safe passage out of Gaza, Egypt would be allowed to negotiate for the hostages' release on behalf of Hamas. Sinwar, however, held to the hope that he would be able to draw Iran and its other Middle East proxies into a war against Israel, and refused the offer.
WSJ also reported that Sinwar expected that he would be killed in the end, and that in preparation for his death, he told Hamas that Israel would likely offer concessions when he was no longer there. But he stressed that after his death, Hamas' position would be stronger, Arab mediators said.
The mediators said that Sinwar also urged Hamas to appoint a council of leaders to lead the group following his death.
WSJ stressed that although the mediators tried to speed up negotiations for a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal, SInwar pushed his comrades abroad to refuse any compromise, since the more Gazans died, the more pressure the international community would place on Israel, which was suffering from internal as well as external pressures.
Later that month, Israel killed Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau with a bomb at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran.
After Israel eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Sinwar sent a message to Hamas' political leaders abroad, warning that the terror group would be under increased pressure to compromise on its demands for a deal - but not to give in.
After Saleh al-Arouri was killed in Beirut, Lebanon, on January 2, Sinwar took additional precautions and changed his method of communication, using aliases and trusting only a handful of aides, using codes and switching between audio messages, intermediaries, and written instructions.
When the IDF closed in on the tunnels and destroyed strategic Hamas compounds, Sinwar was forced above ground, making him more vulnerable and ultimately leading to his death in an Israeli strike.