A screengrab from a handout video shows what the Israeli Army says is recently killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar walking through a tunnel before the October 7 attacks, in this screengrab obtained by Reuters, released on October 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli Army on Saturday (October 19, 2024) released footage it said showed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar preparing for a prolonged stay underground in Gaza hours before the Palestinian group launched its October 7 attack.

Sinwar, then Hamas’s top figure in the Gaza Strip, is accused of masterminding the unprecedented attack last year that triggered the ongoing war. He was killed by Israeli forces earlier this week.

The footage released by the Israeli military showed Sinwar with his wife and children in a tunnel that Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said was under the family home in Khan Yunis.

“You can see how Sinwar and his family members escape to an underground compound under their house on the night of October 6, just hours before the brutal massacre,” Mr. Hagari told a televised briefing while showing the grainy footage.

Sinwar, wearing a plain t-shirt, is seen walking through the tunnel with his two children and wife.

“They are alone for hours. Sinwar and his son go up and down, equipping themselves with plates of food, water, pillows, a plasma screen, mattresses and other products for a long stay,” said Mr. Hagari.

The spokesman showed images of the underground compound which had toilets, showers and a kitchen. He said food, cash and some documents were also found there.

The release of the video comes days after Sinwar was killed by troops in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in a firefight that ended with the Hamas leader cornered and alone in a destroyed building.

Drone footage, also released by the Israeli military after his death, showed an apparently injured Sinwar throwing an object at the drone in his final moments.

The military has also shared footage showing an Israeli tank firing on the building Sinwar was said to be in.

‘Underground fortress’

The New York Times reported that an Israeli autopsy found that Sinwar was killed by a gunshot to the head.

“Sinwar built an underground fortress in his hometown of Khan Yunis. There he hid and continued to launch the attack,” Mr. Hagari said in his Saturday briefing.

Israeli forces had almost closed on him several times during the war, but he managed to escape, Mr. Hagari said.

“For the vast majority of time Sinwar hid underground between Khan Yunis and Rafah,” he said of southern Gaza’s two main cities.

Israel had identified Sinwar’s final hiding after the military found “his DNA sample on a tissue with which he blew his nose,” said Mr. Hagari.

Hamas dismissed as “blatant lies” Mr. Hagari’s remarks suggesting that Sinwar had gone into hiding and prioritised his family’s well-being over that of other Gazans.

“Commander Yahya Sinwar was martyred after heroically engaging in battle, having led the greatest battle in the history of our Palestinian people,” a Hamas statement said.

According to the military, an Israeli patrol encountered Sinwar and two other militants by chance on Wednesday, and as they were chased by soldiers, Sinwar split from the other two.

The military said a tank later fired at the building where Sinwar took cover.

Footage released by the military shortly after Sinwar’s death was announced on Thursday showed him covered in dust, sitting in an armchair and staring down a drone as it entered the building, much of it in ruins.

The footage showed Sinwar alone with one hand severely injured and his head covered in a traditional scarf, throwing a stick at the approaching drone.

“This is actually the first time that Sinwar, who had been hiding underground for a year, met the IDF (army) forces in Gaza and this is also the moment when he was eliminated,” Mr. Hagari said on Saturday.

“Sinwar lived and behaved like a wanted terrorist.”

The Hamas leader, who just months ago replaced his slain predecessor Ismail Haniyeh, had not been seen in public throughout the war.

Jerusalem:

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it was checking the possibility that it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar following an operation in the Gaza Strip that it said had targeted three militants.

“At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” it said in a statement.

It said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

If confirmed, the death of Sinwar would represent a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.

Israel’s Army Radio said the incident had occurred during a targeted ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.

It said visual evidence suggested it was likely that one of the men was Sinwar and DNA tests were being conducted. Israel has samples of Sinwar’s DNA from his period in an Israeli jail.

Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel’s wanted list ever since. But he has so far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.

Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August.

Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut last month as well as much of the top leadership of the group’s military wing.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023 killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into Gaza. Israel’s campaign in response has killed more than 42,000 people, turned much of Gaza into rubble and displaced most of its population.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)