Israel Defense Forces
A frame from the video released by the IDF purportedly showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar inside a tunnel below Khan Younis. CNN cannot independently verify that Sinwar is the man seen in the video, or when it was recorded.
CNN
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The Israeli military released a video that purportedly shows the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar inside a tunnel below the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, with his wife, children and his brother Ibrahim Sinwar.
Israel has publicly accused Sinwar of being the “mastermind” behind Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on October 7 – though experts say he is likely one of several – making him one of the key targets of its war in Gaza.
Unveiling the video at his daily press conference, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said the footage had been captured on a Hamas CCTV camera on October 10 and obtained by the IDF in recent days.
“That’s how he escaped with his family underground in a tunnel to one of the safe accommodation complexes he had built in advance,” Hagari continued.
CNN cannot independently verify that Sinwar is the man seen in the video, nor when it was recorded, and the IDF did not provide additional evidence to support their claims.
Hagari added that the video was a “result of our hunt” for Sinwar and that “the hunt will not stop until he is captured, dead or alive. We are determined to capture him. We will capture him.”
Sinwar has been described as Israel’s most-wanted man in Gaza. The Israeli military has declared him a “dead man walking,” nicknaming him in one profile as “the Butcher from Khan Younis” for his alleged role in planning the October 7 attack.
In December, the IDF surrounded Sinwar’s house but did not find him, saying then that he was believed to be hiding underground. An adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said subsequently that it was “only a matter of time before we get him.”
However, Sinwar has remained elusive, despite an intensive Israeli assault on Khan Younis, his hometown.
On February 6, the IDF said it was still pursuing Sinwar’s whereabouts – and those of other leaders of the militant group in Gaza, with Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss, the commander of the IDF’s 98th Division, saying he was confident his troops would “get them.” At the time, he did not respond when asked whether he could say with confidence that Sinwar was still in Gaza.
The IDF also released a second video which they said showed Israeli forces in a section of the Hamas tunnels where they believe Sinwar was hiding.
In the video, a soldier whose face is blurred says that they are at the “main hiding place” of Sinwar and claims that the Hamas leader was there in “recent times.” The video also shows a bathroom, a kitchen and bedrooms, and the soldier says troops also found “millions of shekels and dollars in the safe and other funds that are scattered here outside.”
“They fled when they heard that the IDF was approaching them. They knew we were coming so they fled,” the soldier says in the video.
CNN…
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