Hamas leader hiding in Gaza, but killing him risks hostages, officials say

The Israeli military is confident that Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is hiding inside a labyrinthine network of tunnels beneath southern Gaza. But he is surrounded by a human shield of hostages intended to deter an operation to capture or kill him, frustrating Israel’s efforts to dismantle the terrorist organization and bring the more than four-month-long war to a close, reported from The Washington Post.

The Israeli operation in Gaza cannot conclude until Sinwar is either captured, killed or no longer in a position to run the organization, current and former Israeli officials said in interviews. Underscoring the necessity of eliminating the terrorist leader, and the degree to which the war hinges on that mission’s success, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud party faction earlier this month, "We will kill the Hamas leadership. … We must not end the war before then.”

But pinpointing Sinwar’s location may not be as difficult, tactically or politically, as mounting a military operation to neutralize him without also killing or injuring many of the hostages believed to be nearby, according to Israeli, US and other Western intelligence and security officials who described the challenging hunt for Israel’s most-wanted man. Many of them spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and operations.

"It’s not about locating him, it’s about doing something” without risking the lives of the hostages, said one senior Israeli official.

Sinwar is believed to be bunkered in the warren of tunnels beneath Khan Younis, the city in southern Gaza where he was born in 1962. US officials said they concur with the Israeli assessment that Sinwar is hiding somewhere underneath his hometown and has surrounded himself with hostages, an ultimate insurance policy.

On Oct. 7, Hamas kidnapped more than 250 civilians and soldiers from Israel and took them into Gaza, officials have said. Hamas has released more than 100 of them. About 130 hostages remain in captivity, an estimate that includes the bodies of about two dozen people who Israeli authorities determined have died. About half a dozen of the remaining hostages are Americans.

For months, the Israeli military and security services have mapped out the vast network of tunnels beneath Gaza in an effort to understand key points in the network and find Sinwar. The painstaking work is done by soldiers working inside the tunnels, who have retrieved information left behind by Hamas fighters that has helped to better understand the interconnected underground system.

As soldiers move through the tunnels, disarming booby traps along the way, they have discovered Hamas administrative files, computers and phone directories that indicate different "offices” in the network, officials said.

Israeli soldiers also have discovered evidence that Sinwar may have been one step ahead of them, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in public remarks earlier this month. According to Israeli press reports, soldiers have found Sinwar’s clothes, notes that he wrote by hand and even a toothbrush he may have used.

In recent days, some officials have speculated that Sinwar may have moved a few miles away to Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Israeli officials have publicly disputed press claims that Sinwar escaped over the border.

Paired with interrogations of captured Hamas fighters, the information Israeli forces found underground has helped them further understand the tunnel routes. US intelligence analysts are helping with some of that tunnel mapping, contributing powerful analytic technologies that fuse fragments of information, according to officials with knowledge of the work.

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