Gaza-based Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar believes that “[W]e have the Israelis right where we want them,” despite massive losses to the terror organization, because of growing international pressure on Israel to stop short of victory.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Sinwar, who is likely hiding in a tunnel in southern Gaza, possibly surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields, is happy with how the war is going — civilian casualties and all.

The Journal noted:

For months, Yahya Sinwar has resisted pressure to cut a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Israel. Behind his decision, messages the Hamas military leader in Gaza has sent to mediators show, is a calculation that more fighting—and more Palestinian civilian deaths—work to his advantage.

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Sinwar said in a recent message to Hamas officials seeking to broker an agreement with Qatari and Egyptian officials.

…

In one message to Hamas leaders in Doha, Sinwar cited civilian losses in national-liberation conflicts in places such as Algeria, where hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for independence from France, saying, “these are necessary sacrifices.”

Sinwar’s war goal, the Journal added, is simply to ensure that Hamas survives, armed and ready to resume terror.

There is reason to believe he is, in fact, succeeding. The United States openly admits that it has adopted Hamas’s ceasefire proposals, and passed a United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing them on Monday. Hamas welcomed the resolution — without agreeing to it explicitly — and said it would be the basis for future negotiations.

The resolution does not call for Hamas to disarm or leave power, and does not even guarantee that all hostages will be released. It does, however, guarantee that Israel will leave Gaza, and would make it harder for Israel to restart the war once a ceasefire took effect. An initial six-week pause in fighting would, according to the proposal, be extended for as long as negotiations were still taking place, meaning Hamas could hold Israel in check merely by pretending to talk.

Israel estimates that some 15,000 or so Hamas terrorists have been killed in the conflict. Thousands of Palestinian civilians have also died. To Sinwar, the Journal notes, it is a small price to pay for the goal of destroying Israel.

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