Blinken also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog following talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

New Delhi:

The Israeli military has released footage of what it claims to be the bunker of ex Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, which he occupied during the first half of the ongoing Gaza conflict. Sinwar, known as the mastermind behind the brutal October 7 attacks, was allegedly prepared to ride out the war with a stash of cash, cologne, and personal comforts in a fully-stocked bunker under the ravaged city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) shared video footage that details the inside of Sinwar’s underground hideout. The video shows a well-equipped bunker, complete with modern showers, several bathrooms, and a fully functional kitchen, stocked with food rations labelled with the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) logo. 

Sinwar, 61, had taken refuge in the bunker with his guards and close associates as the war above ground escalated. The footage shows a bag of UNRWA-supplied food, reinforcing Israel’s longstanding accusation that Hamas steals from international agencies, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The IDF has released footage showing their entry into Sinwar’s bunker, where UNWRA bags and millions of shekels were found.

Sinwar and other Hamas leaders have been siphoning billions from the people of Gaza, allegedly with @UNWRA‘s involvement.

pic.twitter.com/ZRcr5UWKmF

— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) October 20, 2024

The bunker contained multiple bottles of cologne, hygiene supplies, and even a private shower. According to an IDF soldier giving the tour of the bunker, Sinwar’s personal quarters included a large safe filled with millions of Israeli shekels.

Next to the door of the bunker, soldiers found lockers filled with a cache of weapons, ammunition, and explosives.

Sinwar had fled the bunker before the IDF could capture him. Reports suggest that Sinwar initially stayed in Khan Younis before being forced to flee further south to Rafah as the Israeli military closed in on his position. It was in Rafah, where Sinwar’s luck finally ran out. Last Thursday, Israeli soldiers killed him in a strike during what they described as a “routine operation”. The IDF initially believed they had encountered just another Hamas fighter before later identifying Sinwar as one of the casualties.

According to Israeli sources, Sinwar had spent much of the war hiding underground, directing Hamas operations and attempting to evade capture. Sinwar’s wife, Abu Zamar, was reportedly carrying a Rs 28 lakh ($32,000) Hermes Birkin bag during their escape.

After months of searching, Sinwar’s fate was sealed when an IDF patrol stumbled upon him in Rafah. Sinwar, cornered and injured in a demolished building, was caught on drone footage in his final moments. The video showed Sinwar, covered in dust and with one hand severely injured, hurling an object-believed to be a stick-at an approaching Israeli drone.

An Israeli autopsy confirmed that Sinwar died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Former Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in an Israeli operation in southern Gaza last week, was seen moving inside a tunnel with his wife and children, hours before the deadly October 7 attack on Israel last year. The now-dead Hamas leader was carrying pillows, mattresses, television, and bags inside the tunnel located under their family in Khan Younis, a CCTV footage showed. 

Meanwhile, his wife was seen carrying a Hermes bag, which Israel claims is worth $32,000.

Israel said, “Yahya Sinwar’s wife was caught sneaking to the tunnels the night before the October 7 attack,” claiming she was carrying a Hermes Birkin bag worth $32,000 (Rs 26.88 lakh). 

Sinwar’s wife caught in this photo sneaking to the tunnels the night before October 7th – get this – clutching a $32,000 Hermes Birkin bag!

While Gazans endured hardship under Hamas, Sinwar and his family were shamelessly living in luxury, indulging while sending others to die. pic.twitter.com/Q9fTqhqxo8

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 20, 2024

“While Gazans endured hardship under Hamas, Sinwar and his family were shamelessly living in luxury, indulging while sending others to die,” Israel said.

Israel shared a screengrab from the video, where Sinwar’s wife holds a bag. In the hazy picture, the design on the bag ‘appears to be similar’ to the Hermes Birkin 40 Black Togo Gold Hardware edition. The Palestinian militant group is yet to contest Israel’s claim.

The footage was released following Sinwar’s death in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in an armour-infantry assault. Israel’s 828th Brigade conducted “intelligence-based targeted raids and operations,” the Israel Defence Forces said, giving details of the damage assessment, where they found assault rifles and snipers in the hideout and Sinwar’s body.

DECLASSIFIED FOOTAGE:

Sinwar hours before the October 7 massacre: taking down his TV into his tunnel, hiding underneath his civilians, and preparing to watch his terrorists murder, kindap and rape. pic.twitter.com/wTAF9xAPLU

— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) October 19, 2024

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari showed photos of the underground compound with toilets, showers, and a kitchen. Food, cash, and documents were also found there.

Hamas, meanwhile, said Sinwar died heroically engaging in battle, calling Hagar’s remarks “blatant lies”.

Drone footage from earlier this week showed Sinwar critically wounded in his last moments, throwing an object at the drone. The autopsy found that Sinwar was killed by a gunshot to the head, and also found one of his fingers was cut off.

During a year of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Israel Defence Forces had often closed in on Sinwar, but the latter managed to escape. Israel had identified Sinwar’s final hiding after the military found “his DNA sample on a tissue with which he blew his nose,” said Hagari.

Yahya Sinwar was the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed, resulting in a year-long Israeli operation in Gaza, killing over 40,000 including children.

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.

New Delhi:

Israel on Saturday released footage showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar moving his belongings to a tunnel in Gaza hours before the October 7 attack last year that triggered the ongoing war.

The footage was released following Sinwar’s death in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in a firefight that ended with the Hamas leader cornered and alone in a destroyed building.

The footage shows Sinwar and his wife and children moving belongings, including a television, water, pillows and mattresses, into the tunnel that Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said was located under the family home in Khan Younis.

DECLASSIFIED FOOTAGE:

Sinwar hours before the October 7 massacre: taking down his TV into his tunnel, hiding underneath his civilians, and preparing to watch his terrorists murder, kindap and rape. pic.twitter.com/wTAF9xAPLU

— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) October 19, 2024

During a press briefing, Hagari showed photos of the underground compound, which had toilets, showers and a kitchen. Food, cash and documents were also found there.

Hamas, meanwhile, said Sinwar died heroically engaging in battle, calling Hagar’s remarks “blatant lies”.

Drone footage from earlier this week showed Sinwar critically wounded in his last moments, throwing an object at the drone. Autopsy found that Sinwar was killed by a gunshot to the head, and also found one of his fingers was cut off.

During a year of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Israel Defence Forces had often closed in on Sinwar, but the latter managed to escape. Israel had identified Sinwar’s final hiding after the military found “his DNA sample on a tissue with which he blew his nose,” said Hagari.

While the October 7 attack in Israel killed around 1,200 people and resulted in 235 people being taken hostage, the Israel operation in Gaza over a year has resulted in over 40,000 deaths.

The death of Sinwar, who had just months ago replaced slain predecessor Ismail Haniyeh, raises questions on who will lead the Hamas amid a war that has also drawn in Lebanon. Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced. Hezbollah attacks have killed 50 Israeli soldiers and civilians, according to Israel.

Paris:

Slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was seen as a key obstacle to any agreement on the Israeli hostages seized during the October 7 attack that he orchestrated.

With his group plunged into a leadership vacuum by his death, the future of hostage negotiations appears to have become even more complicated.

Hamas now needs to appoint a replacement, and that person will play a key role in determining the fate of the Israelis kept hostage since its attack on October 7, 2023.

Of the 251 hostages taken to the Gaza Strip that day, 97 are still being held there, including 34 who the Israeli army has confirmed are dead.

Negotiations for their release are led by Israel’s intelligence services, with the help of the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

But that task will be no easier with Sinwar gone, analysts said.

“The hostages’ fate may now be sealed for the simple reason that there is no one left to negotiate their release,” said Karim Mezran, a Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council think tank.

US intelligence believed “Sinwar’s stance had hardened in recent weeks, leading American negotiators to believe that Hamas was no longer interested in reaching a ceasefire or hostage agreement,” said the New York-based Soufan Center.

So “any forthcoming negotiations can also serve as a litmus test for Hamas’s operational capacity in the post-Sinwar era,” the think tank added.

While the families of the hostages welcomed Sinwar’s killing, they also expressed “deep concern” about those still held captive.

“We call on the Israeli government, world leaders, and mediating countries to leverage the military achievement into a diplomatic one by pursuing an immediate agreement for the release,” the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said on Friday.

Hamas ‘decentralised’

Part of the problem lies in how Hamas is no longer the ultra-hierarchical organisation it was when it carried out the October 7 attack which sparked the Gaza war.

Decimated and scattered by Israel’s offensive, and with the Gaza Strip cleaved in two by the Israeli army, today the militant group “operates in very localised cells, in a much more decentralised way”, researcher David Khalfa at the Fondation Jean-Jaures think tank told AFP.

Hamas “is now more of a militia with local warlords” that has links with “families which apparently are holding hostages”, he said.

That “is going to be a real problem for the Israelis and the Americans. Rather than a blanket agreement on the hostages, they will probably aim for releases bit by bit,” Khalfa said.

Until the middle of 2024, Hamas’s structure was split in two: on the one hand, the political branch led by Ismail Haniyeh, based in the Qatari capital Doha, and the paramilitary branch led by Sinwar in Gaza on the other.

Sinwar rose to become the overall leader of Hamas after Haniyeh was assassinated in July.

The balance of power between the two is now tilted towards the political bureau, “where the sources of funding, logistical support and militia training are concentrated”, Khalfa said.

If it chooses a leader in exile, the group runs the risk of seeing its new chief alienated from its forces on the ground in the Palestinian territories.

But if it appoints a fighter such as Sinwar’s brother Mohammed, Hamas will be signalling it has less interest in a political resolution to the war.

‘Much murkier’ picture

Hostage negotiations are now in unchartered territory.

“Prior negotiating efforts were all based on the idea that Sinwar had a line of connection to most of those holding hostages, and he could shape their actions,” Jon Alterman of the US think tank CSIS said.

“The picture is much murkier now, and we are likely to see a diverse array of outcomes,” he said.

There are even fears the hostages could be executed, perhaps in revenge for Sinwar’s killing or because the militants feel they can no longer sell the hostages for cash.

With no one in the group “willing to take the deadly risk of looking after them… the hostages may be left to their own devices and able to escape,” Mezran said.

“The fear is also that mid-level Hamas operatives may be tempted to eliminate the hostages to protect their own identities from the eventual retaliation of Israeli forces.”

The pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is enormous, but his government does not appear prepared to secure the hostages’ release at any price.

It will not have forgotten the 2011 release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held hostage by Hamas for five years.

Among the Palestinians freed was Sinwar himself.

“They want to get away from the Shalit precedent, which was a mistake they paid a high price for,” Khalfa said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A drone was launched towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in the Israeli town of Caesarea on Saturday, hours after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed.

Mr Netanyahu’s spokesperson said he was not in the vicinity and there were no casualties in the attack on his residence. “A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was launched toward the prime minister’s residence in Caesarea. The prime minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Earlier, the Israeli military had said that the drone was launched from Lebanon and it had hit a building. Two more drones that crossed into Israeli territory were intercepted, the military was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The drone attack was not immediately claimed by Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel since last October, or any other militant group.

Israel is also fighting a war with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The two sides had exchanged rocket fire since the October 7 attack, with Israel sending ground troops across the Lebanese border last month.

The drone attack comes a day after the Israeli military said it had destroyed Hezbollah’s regional command centre with an air strike. Since late September, the war has left at least 1,418 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities said two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday in Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first strike on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year. The health ministry said an “Israeli enemy raid” hit a car in Jounieh, with Lebanese state media saying the attack occurred on a key highway linking the capital to the country’s north.

The tripartite conflict in Middle East is likely to see further intensification after Sinwar was killed in an Israeli operation in southern Gaza. Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks which killed over 1,200 Israelis and brought more than 250 hostages into Gaza, took over as head of Hamas after the killing of its leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. File
| Photo Credit: West Asia News Agency/Handout via Reuters

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday (October 19, 2024), the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will not halt the “Axis of Resistance” and that Hamas would live on.

“His loss is undoubtedly painful for the Axis of Resistance, but this front did not cease advancing with the martyrdom of prominent figures,” Mr. Khamenei said in a statement.

“Hamas is alive and will remain alive,” he added.

New Delhi:

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect of the group’s cross-border raids in 2023 that became the deadliest day in Israel’s history, was killed in combat, Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy Gaza Hamas chief and the group’s chief negotiator, said on Friday.

Sinwar’s death, which follows Israeli assassinations of other Hamas leaders and commanders, will deal a huge blow to the Islamist group which has faced relentless air strikes since it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

It also dragged about 250 people back to Gaza, creating a hostage crisis for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government which has vowed to eliminate Hamas.

Sinwar will be remembered as a ruthless enforcer among Palestinians who collaborated with Israel and an implacable enemy of the country which jailed him for many years. Sinwar was named the group’s paramount leader on August 6, as a successor to former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.

Widely known as the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the most devastating event for Israel in decades, Sinwar has been in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since the start of the war.

Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar, 62, was elected as Hamas’ leader in Gaza in 2017. The controversial leader, who spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons, was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive following the assassination of Haniyeh.

Won’t Release Hostages: Hamas

Hamas today said it won’t release hostages until Israel ends its war on Gaza, withdraws from the territory and frees jailed Palestinians. The hostages “will not return… unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from it, and our heroic prisoners are released from the occupation’s prisons,” Khalil al-Haya said in a video statement, news agency AFP reported.

With inputs from Reuters and AFP

A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian group cannot be eliminated with the killing of its leaders, but stopped short of confirming the death of its chief, Yahya Sinwar.

“Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated,” Basem Naim, senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP.

In a statement, he listed several Hamas leaders killed in the past, and said their deaths had boosted the group’s popularity.

“It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people,” Naim said.

“Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.”

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