It’s believed Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader, is caught on camera, making his way through a tunnel with his wife and three children as he carries the large bag in chilling footage
IDF footage appears to show Yahya Sinwar in underground tunnel network
Chilling footage claims to show the Hamas leader carrying a bag full of dynamite through a narrow tunnel in a desperate bid to stop Israel from killing him.
Yahya Sinwar, 62, allegedly surrounded himself with 20 hostages moments after the clip, filmed in Israel, ended. It is the last known sighting of the mastermind, it is believed, as he’s remained elusive since the bloody conflict escalated in the year since.
But the chief of Israel’s army declared on Sunday that the terror group’s military wing has been “defeated”. The black and white footage has been uncovered by defiant Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops.
It’s understood Sinwar’s wife and three children join him through the narrow tunnels. He hauls a large bag, thought to be full of dynamite. Kobi Michael, Sinwar’s former Shin Bet interrogator, said: “In that bag is about 25kg of dynamite. Around him are at least 20 hostages… A few times we have had the chance to kill him, but if we do, he will kill all the hostages around him.”
Some 97 hostages who were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, are believed to still be in Gaza one year on. It is not known how many have died in captivity.
In a year of retribution for the cross-border terror attack by Hamas, relentless Israel bombing of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel’s military said it has hit more than 40,000 targets, found 4,700 tunnel shafts and destroyed 1,000 rocket launcher sites during its year-long bombardment of the Strip.
Sinwar is unrepentant about the October 7 attacks, people in contact with him have said, despite unleashing an Israeli invasion that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to his homeland and rained destruction on ally Hezbollah.
The list of Hamas leaders killed in the months since includes Mohammed Deif, the head of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, who was killed in an airstrike on Gaza.
Saleh al-Arouri, a founding commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, was assassinated in an explosion in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, which is a stronghold for Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and part of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’.
Then in July, the leader of Hamas’s political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, was blown up, most likely by Israel, while visiting Tehran to attend the inauguration of the Iranian president. Sinwar was appointed as the leader of Hamas after Haniyeh’s assassination.
