Israel-Hamas war: Video purports to show terror group leader Yahya Sinwar in tunnel
Hamas’s chief appears to be running and hiding in an underground tunnel in video released by Israel. Follow latest. Warning: Graphic
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Israel’s army has released a video it says shows Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, with his family members in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory.
The images are said to be the first of Sinwar since the war with the terror group broke out.
The black and white footage shows a young man leading a woman, three children and another man, who the army said was Sinwar, from one end of a tunnel to another.
“During a special unit’s operations … a video was discovered in a tunnel from a security camera installed there. The footage shows leader of Hamas and mass murderer, Yahya Sinwar, fleeing with his children and one of his wives,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a briefing.
“This is how he escaped with his family from an underground tunnel to a secured complex he had built in advance,” Hagari said.
“This video of Sinwar is the result of our hunt. This hunt will not stop until we have captured him dead or alive.”
The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Hagari said the video had been filmed on October 10, three days after Hamas carried out an attack on Israeli that resulted in the deaths of about 1160 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
It comes as CIA Director William Burns met with Mossad chief David Barnea in Cairo on Tuesday local time for a new round of talks on a Qatari-brokered ceasefire proposal, which would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.
A Hamas official told AFP they were waiting for the outcome of the Cairo meeting but were “open to discussing any initiative that achieves an end to aggression and war.”
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US DEFENCE CHIEF RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been released from hospital after undergoing treatment under general anesthetic for bladder issues as he battles prostate cancer, the Pentagon said.
“He is recovering well and resumed his full functions and duties today at 5pm (Tuesday local time) … Secretary Austin will recuperate and perform his duties remotely from home for a period before returning to work at the Pentagon later this week,” his office said in a statement.
Austin’s latest health scare came weeks after it emerged the 70-year-old had kept recent hospital stays secret and had not promptly informed President Joe Biden of his cancer diagnosis, sparking widespread criticism.
The White House and Congress have been notified of his return to work, the Pentagon said.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked by reporters on Monday if Biden had any concerns over Austin’s ability to continue in his job, and he replied: “Not at all.”
‘WE ESCAPED WITH EMPTY HANDS’
Over half of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, pressed up against the Egypt border in makeshift camps where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea, and a scarcity of food and water.
Some families, already displaced several times, were starting to dismantle tents and gather their belongings to flee once again.
“We escaped the north with empty hands, then we escaped Khan Younis with almost empty hands,” said Ismail Joundiyah. “We want to be ready this time.”
Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will provide “safe passage” to civilians trying to leave, but foreign governments, Gazans and aid groups questioned where they could go.
“There is no place that is currently safe in Gaza,” said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
ISRAEL ‘EVACUATION PLAN’ FOR RAFAH
The Wall Street Journal reported Israel was proposing to create 15 large campsites with 25,000 tents each in the southwestern Gaza Strip, as part of an evacuation plan.
Egyptian officials said the camps and field hospitals would be installed and administered by Egypt, although there has been no confirmation from either country.
The UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk warned “an extremely high number of civilians” would likely be killed or injured in an Israeli incursion into Rafah, which could also spell the end of the “meagre” humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
“We’re almost out of flour in the north,” said a man in north Gaza’s Beit Lahia. “We can’t even find food and drinks for the children.”
REPORTERS INJURED
As smoke was seen rising over Rafah, Al Jazeera said that two of its journalists were severely wounded in an Israeli strike on the city.
Reporter Ismail Abu Omar’s life is at risk after having his right leg amputated, while cameraman Ahmad Matar has suffered multiple wounds and severe bleeding, the Qatar-based broadcaster said quoting an emergency physician.
At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have died in Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Hamas-run Gaza, according to the health ministry.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in Gaza, taking its losses to 232 since ground operations began on October 27.
The Israeli army also said it had killed more than 30 “terrorists” in Khan Younis – southern Gaza’s largest city, where there has been heavy fighting in recent weeks.
GLOBAL PRESSURE ON ISRAEL
Israel is facing growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it plans an incursion into the southern Gaza city Rafah.
Washington and the United Nations have warned Israel against carrying out a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.
“Wherever we go there’s bombing, martyrs and wounded,” said Iman Dergham, a displaced Palestinian woman.
On a visit to the White House Monday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II pushed for a full ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.
“We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah. It is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe,” said the monarch whose country hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees.
“We cannot stand by and let this continue. We need a lasting ceasefire now. This war must end.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said there were “too many victims” in Gaza, saying Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory following the unprecedented Hamas attacks was “disproportionate”.
Mr Netanyahu has defied pressure from key ally and military backer Washington, insisting that “complete victory” cannot be achieved until the elimination of the militants’ last battalions in Rafah.
HOSTAGES’ FAMILIES SAY ’JOB IS NOT DONE’
Relatives of two hostages rescued overnight from Gaza made a passionate plea on Monday for a broader deal between Israel and Hamas to secure the release of other captives still held in the Palestinian territory.
An Israeli special forces night-time raid in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah freed Israeli-Argentinians Louis Har, 70, and Fernando Simon Marman, 60.
Home â¤ï¸#BringThemAllHomeNow ðŸŽ—ï¸ pic.twitter.com/E8CXUZxL3H
— Israel ישר×ל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) February 12, 2024
Around 100 Palestinians, including children, were killed in accompanying air strikes, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Speaking from an Israeli hospital in Tel Aviv where the two were undergoing medical tests, Har’s son-in-law described “a lot of tears, hugs, not many words” when the family was reunited.
“Luckily for us, as a family, they were saved tonight. But I must say that the job is not done,” Idan Bejerano told journalists at Sheba hospital.
“We are happy today, but we didn’t win. It’s just another step towards bringing all the other hostages home,” he continued.
Marman’s niece, Gefen Sigal Ilan, said she was still “shaking” from the news of her uncle’s rescue.
“When I saw him I couldn’t believe he was real,” she told AFP.
She said the families of hostages will keep fighting for the release of other captives.
“I want to say we will not stop until all hostages are free … We will fight for their freedom,” said Ilan, 36.
Marman and Har were captured at Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Marman, was taken along with his sister Clara Marman, 62, her partner Har, 70, their other sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela’s daughter, Mia Leimberg, 17.
The Leimbergs and Clara Marman were released on November 28 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.
Mia Leimberg gained some particular attention after it emerged that she had her pet dog Bella with her for the duration of the captivity, and brought her back with her.
The men are in “good health”, the Israeli military said.
ACTIVIST DEFENDS SPREAD OF PRIVATE CHAT
Writer and activist Clementine Ford was among those who spread details of the group’s members online.
In a social media post, she denied that the group members were “doxxed” and said the information was released by a “whistleblower”.
Ford dubbed the WhatsApp group a “Zionist group chat” and alleged it had “demonstrated extremely organised moves to punish Palestinian activists and their allies”.
She maintained the group was behind pressure that led to the firing of Australian-Lebanese radio host Antoinette Lattouf by public broadcaster ABC for Gaza-related social media posts.
Lattouf campaigned online for a ceasefire in Gaza and was critical of Australian media’s coverage of the conflict.
Lattouf has taken legal action against the dismissal and her supporters have accused ABC management of ceding to an orchestrated campaign for her ouster.
WHATSAPP GROUP CHAT LEAK MAY LEAD TO NEW LEGISLATION
After details from a WhatsApp group of more than 600 Jewish-Australian academics, artists and others appeared online, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said it was time to act.
The information allegedly included names, social media accounts and photos of members, which were then spread quickly by opponents of the war in Gaza and pro-Palestinian activists.
“The recent targeting of members of the Australian Jewish community through those practices like doxxing was shocking, but sadly, this is far from being an isolated incident,” Dreyfus said in a statement.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a community advocacy group, said that the leak was “done with malice” and resulted in harassment, death threats, vandalism and “extensive psychological harm”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had asked for legislation to be brought forward as part of a broader reform of privacy laws.
“The idea that in Australia someone should be targeted because of their religion … it’s just completely unacceptable,” he said.
US SAYS TRUCE ‘POSSIBLE’
Israel’s top ally the United States said it would “not support a full-scale military operation” without protections for civilians in Rafah city.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said a “credible” Israeli plan to keep civilians safe in Rafah was needed.
He added that a new truce in the four-month war “is possible”.
It comes as Israel is said to be proposing the creation of tent cities in Gaza as part of an evacuation plan to be funded by the US and its Arab Gulf allies ahead of an invasion of Rafah.
DEATH TOLL EXCEEDS 28,000
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Monday said at least 28,340 people have been killed in the besieged territory during the war between Palestinian militants and Israel.
The latest toll includes 164 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while a total of 67,984 people have been wounded in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7.
100 PEOPLE KILLED IN RAFAH STRIKES
Predawn Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed “around 100” people on Monday, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement.
The statement revised upward the ministry’s earlier toll of 52 people killed in the strikes on the city along the Egyptian border
AFP journalists and witnesses heard an intense series of strikes and saw smoke billowing above the city, which now hosts more than half of Gaza’s total population after they fled bombardment elsewhere on the Strip.
The strikes hit 14 houses and three mosques in different parts of Rafah, according to the Hamas government.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Monday that it had “conducted a series of strikes on terror targets in the area of Shaboura in the southern Gaza Strip”, adding that the strikes had concluded.
‘UNPRECEDENTED HUMANITARIAN DISASTER’
US Senator Bernie Sanders has said “no one in Congress” should support the Biden administration sending military aid to Israel, in a post on X.
He added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “war machine” is responsible for an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster”.
No one in Congress should vote to send $10 billion in military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine when they are responsible for an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. pic.twitter.com/shaKllzCDI
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 12, 2024
‘VICTORY IS WITHIN REACH’: NETANYAHU
Mr Netanyahu told US broadcaster ABC News that those who urged Israel not to go in to Rafah were effectively giving Hamas licence to remain.
“Victory is within reach. We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we’re going to do it,” Mr Netanyahu told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Sunday.
“We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave,” he said.
When asked where the sheltering Palestinians are expected to go, Mr Netanyahu said “we’re working out a detailed plan.”
CAIRO HOSTS TRUCE TALKS
Renewed talks for a pause in the fighting have been held in Cairo, with Hamas open to a ceasefire, including a possible exchange of hostages for women and children held in Israeli prisons.
Foreign governments, including Israel’s main ally the United States, and humanitarian organisations in particular have voiced deep concern about the effect of a push on Rafah on displaced civilians.
Qatar condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, urging the UN’s Security Council to “prevent” Israel from committing what it described as “genocide.”
Qatar has been a key mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas involving the release of hostages.
Some 1.4 million people — about half of Gaza’s total population — have crowded into Rafah, with many living outside or in tents and where food, water and medical supplies are increasingly scarce.
WAR ‘DEVASTATING’ PALESTINIAN ECONOMY
The Israel-Hamas war has devastated the economies of both the embattled Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, the International Monetary Fund’s chief said, adding that only “durable peace” would improve the outlook.
“The Palestinian economy’s dire outlook is worsening as the conflict persists,” managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
“Only a durable peace and political solution will fundamentally change it”.
In the war-ravaged coastal territory, economic activity dropped 80 per cent from October through December compared with a year earlier, the IMF chief said.
In the West Bank, the drop was 22 per cent, she added.
The Palestinian territory has been hit hard by Israel’s withdrawal of 130,000 work permits, the proliferation of checkpoints that has heavily disrupted transportation, the loss of tourism, being cut off from Gaza and Israel’s withholding of tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority.
Beyond the Palestinian territories, the Israel-Hamas war has also hit the tourism sectors of neighbouring countries such as Egypt and Lebanon, she said.
Meanwhile, attacks on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Huthi rebels, which the group says are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, is leading to “rising freight costs and reduced Red Sea transit volumes (which are) down by nearly 50 per cent this year in our PortWatch data,” Georgieva said in her speech.
CALL TO EXPULSE ISRAEL FROM UN
Iran marked 45 years since its Islamic revolution with a ceremony on Sunday in which President Ebrahim Raisi condemned arch foe Israel over the Gaza war and demanded it be expelled from the United Nations.
Since Iran’s 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the region’s main Shiite Muslim power has had deeply hostile relations with Israel, the United States and Britain.
Support for the Palestinian cause and harsh criticism of the United States — often dubbed the “Great Satan” in Iran — and Israel dominated ceremonies marking the anniversary.
In Tehran, Raisi accused the “Zionist entity”, Iran’s term for Israel, of committing “genocide” in Gaza with the support of the United States and other Western countries.
Supporters chanted “Down with the United States”, “Down with Israel” and “Down with the United Kingdom” at the square, where Iranian-made missiles and other military hardware were on display.
Raisi demanded that the “bombing of Gaza should be stopped as soon as possible” and declared that “the death of the Zionist regime has come”, in his speech to thousands at Azadi Square in western Tehran.
“We believe that one of the important steps that should be taken is the expulsion of the Zionist regime from the United Nations,” he said.
UN AGENCY UNDER PRESSURE OVER HAMAS TUNNELS
To the north in Gaza City, Israel’s military claimed that its troops uncovered a Hamas tunnel under the evacuated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for its head, Philippe Lazzarini, to quit.
Lazzarini said the agency had not operated from the compound since October 12 when staff evacuated it under instruction from Israeli forces.
Already under pressure after Israel claimed 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack, he called for an independent investigation into the latest Israeli accusations.
An AFP photographer was among a number of journalists taken to the compound and tunnel by the Israeli military.
UN premises are considered “inviolable” in international law and immune from “search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference”.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that it has dug a network of tunnels under schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure as cover for its activities.
On Sunday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called UNRWA “a Hamas front”.
– with AFP
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