Footage shows Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar fleeing in tunnel

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar fled through a tunnel in Gaza with his wife and children after the brutal attack on Israel.

Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the brutal October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, has been seen fleeing through a tunnel.

Israel’s army released a video on Tuesday, filmed on October 10, it said showed Sinwar with his family members in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory.

The black and white images showing a man said to be Sinwar being led through a tunnel together with a woman and three children are said to be the first of him since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

Israel accuses Sinwar of masterminding the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the conflict, now in its fifth month.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza tunnel. Picture: Twitter

The IDF said he was “running away and hiding in his underground terrorist tunnel network as Gazan civilians suffer above ground”. Picture: Twitter

The footage was posted by Israel Defense Forces. Picture: Twitter

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops had uncovered the video in a security camera during an operation in a tunnel, without elaborating on the location.

“The footage shows leader of Hamas and mass murderer, Yahya Sinwar, fleeing with his children and one of his wives,” he told 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.” AFP was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

A child was also seen fleeing in the tunnel. Picture: Twitter

It was unclear from the footage where the tunnel was located, but in recent weeks the Israeli military has pounded Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city and Sinwar’s hometown.

Hagari said the video had been filmed on October 10, three days after Hamas carried out an attack on Israel.

Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Sinwar was “moving from hide-out to hide-out” and was no longer leading the group’s military operations in Gaza.

Smoke billows following Israeli bombardment in the village of Shihin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on February 13, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

“He has now become a terrorist on the run from being the leader of Hamas” in the Palestinian territory, Gallant said, without elaborating on Sinwar’s presumed current location.

Sinwar joined Hamas when Sheikh Ahmad Yassin founded the group in 1987, around the start of the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israeli occupation.

The ascetic militant, known for his secrecy, has not been seen since October 7. Since then, Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht called Sinwar the “face of evil” and declared him a “dead man walking”.

But Israeli forces in Gaza have failed to locate any of Hamas’s top leaders.

Demonstrators gather with signs during a protest by Israeli left-wing activists against the war in the Gaza Strip and the planned ground operation in Rafah. Picture: AFP

Pressure for ceasefire

Israel faced growing international pressure Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it prepared for an incursion into the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

CIA director William Burns met Mossad chief David Barnea in Cairo for talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.

The negotiations, which also involved Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, were “positive” and would continue for three more days, said Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, citing a senior Egyptian official.

Rescued Israeli-Argentinian hostage Fernando Simon Marman (R) being reunited with his family at the Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Picture: AFP

A day after Israeli forces rescued two hostages from Gaza, the families of the remaining captives made an emotional plea to Barnea and the Israeli delegation ahead of the Cairo talks: “Do not return until everyone comes home -- the living and the dead.” The Israeli campaign group, Hostages and Missing Families Forum, has urged the government to exhaust every option to return some 130 hostages still believed to be in Gaza. Israel says 29 of them are presumed dead.

The group called it a “once-in-a-lifetime mission” and said they must “not return without a deal”.

Militants took about 250 people hostage in an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Hamas-run Gaza since then, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.

The Cairo meeting came after the United States and United Nations warned Israel against a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

With Rafah on edge, some residents began dismantling makeshift tents and prepared to move on again.

“We are sleeping in the street, (the tent) doesn’t have a roof, it’s made of nylon -- if it gets hit by a missile, you will die instantly,” said Gazan Fayez Abed.

After White House talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday, US President Joe Biden said civilians in Rafah “need to be protected”, calling them “exposed and vulnerable”.

King Abdullah pushed for a “lasting ceasefire”, warning that an Israeli attack on Rafah would “produce another humanitarian catastrophe”.