Hamas Leader Sinwar Surfaces from Hiding, Leading Resistance on the Ground
Hamas terror group leader Yahya Sinwar has briefly surfaced from his underground hiding place and walked the streets of the Gaza Strip, an official in the group claimed. The official, who spoke anonymously to the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper in an interview published Wednesday, refuted Israeli claims that Sinwar is cut off from his forces on the ground.
According to the Hamas source, Sinwar has met with fighters and reviewed sites where there were clashes with the Israel Defense Forces. The source claimed that Sinwar recently inspected areas that witnessed clashes between the resistance and the occupation army and met with some fighters of the movement above ground.
The emergence of Sinwar from the tunnels contradicts Israeli claims that he is forced to hunker down in Hamas’s vast network of tunnels beneath Gaza, leaving him isolated from the group’s gunmen fighting against the IDF on the surface. Israeli officials have indicated that he was likely in tunnels under Khan Younis or Rafah, surrounded by hostages.
The Hamas source further stated that Sinwar was effectively leading the movement on the ground. He provided an update on the resistance’s combat capabilities in recent discussions between the movement’s leadership internally and externally. The source noted that the meetings took place at Hamas leaders’ homes.
Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the report. However, the forum representing the families of hostages who were abducted from Israel during the Hamas October attack said in a statement that intelligence officials looked into the report and found the information reliable.
The source also claimed that Hamas had offered to release 40 hostages in the first stage of a recent temporary ceasefire proposal, not just 20 as reported in Israel. Hamas ultimately rejected the proposal.
The interview came the same day that Hamas released a propaganda video showing signs of life from Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23. In the nearly three-minute-long video, Goldberg-Polin, who is seen missing one of his hands, vociferously demands that the Israeli government return the hostages from Gaza or step down, echoing a stance increasingly voiced recently by some relatives of the abductees.
