Posted on 12/19/23
| News Source: Times of Israel
IDF troops have twice managed to reach tunnels in Gaza in recent days where they believe Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was hiding just before they arrived, Hebrew media outlets reported Tuesday.
Citing unnamed sources, Channel 13 reported that the IDF has primarily focused its activities in and around the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in order to achieve its goal of assassinating Sinwar.
The intelligence information gathered by the IDF while moving in on the Hamas leader has indicated that he is on the move rather than remaining in any one place for an extended period.
The report said that during the manhunt for Sinwar, troops uncovered a previous hiding space of Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing.
Sinwar is currently believed to be hiding in Khan Younis, after fleeing the north of the Strip by hiding in a humanitarian convoy heading south early in the terror group’s war with Israel.
On December 6, the IDF was reported to have surrounded his home in Khan Younis despite there being no indication that he was residing there, as he is in hiding and owns multiple homes.
Sinwar was selected to replace Ismail Haniyeh as the leader of the terror group inside Gaza in 2017. Haniyeh currently resides in Qatar and serves as the chair of Hamas’s political bureau.
Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel in 1989 for planning the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians but was released 22 years later as part of the deal Israel made for the return of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
He has been accused of overseeing the preparations and planning for the October 7 onslaught, during which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists poured into Israel from the land, air and sea, killing more than 1,200 people and seizing some 240 hostages.
In response to the attack, the deadliest in the country’s history, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas from Gaza and end their 16-year rule, and launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation.