‘Lift came out of floor’: how Israeli Defence Forces found Yahya Sinwar’s tunnel

An Israeli military commander who discovered Yahya Sinwar’s hiding place has described the elaborate means by which the Hamas leader hid the entrance.

Gaza Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. Picture: AFP.

An Israeli military commander who discovered Yahya Sinwar’s hiding place has described the elaborate means by which the Hamas leader hid the entrance to his tunnel network.

Lt-Colonel Elichan told Israeli media his troops had been searching houses in an up-market suburb of Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza to find the Hamas control centre.

“We kept advancing, scanning houses,” he said. “We knew that there were houses with terror infrastructure and terrorists,” he said, adding that the “luxury” houses his men searched were stocked with ammunition, weaponry, and Hamas uniforms.

“There isn’t a house you would go into that didn’t have grenades or ammunition, or Hamas uniforms, or something about Hamas,” he said.

The kitchen in Yahya Sinwar's tunnel hiding place. Picture: IDF.

The Israeli Defence Forces last month found the tunnel network where Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hid in the wake of the massacre. Video released by the IDF showed a series of rooms including two bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, and a sleeping area with uniforms spread out on a bed. It also showed a room which the IDF said was Sinwar’s private room, and which holds a safe in which they said they found millions of shekels and dollars.

The IDF also released video of the terror leader, captured on Hamas’ own surveillance cameras, fleeing through a network of tunnels on October 10, just three days after militants slaughtered 1200 people in southern Israel and captured scores more.

Spotted: Yahya Sinwar running away and hiding in his underground terrorist tunnel network as Gazan civilians suffer above ground under the rule of Hamas terrorism.

There is no tunnel deep enough for him to hide in. pic.twitter.com/KLjisBFq1f

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 13, 2024

The search for the network was, said Lt-Col. Elichan, just “another day at the office,” although “one tunnel was different than the others.”

He said troops realised they had found the tunnel used by senior Hamas commanders because of its elaborate structure.

Yahya Sinwar was captured on CCTV fleeing through a tunnel under Khan Younis. Picture: IDF.

“The tunnel was in the basement, covered in ceramics. When we pushed on it, a trap door opened, and there was an elevator that came out of the ground and went down 20 metres to tunnels below,” he said.

He said that when the division commander came to view the tunnel, he insisted on sitting in Sinwar’s house, rather than using a neighbouring apartment to observe the ongoing search.

“He said, ‘This is where Sinwar and (Hamas co-leader Mohammed Deif sat and planned the massacre,’ and that there is where he wanted to sit.

“It was a statement of values,” explained Elichan. “ ‘I want to sit here even though it is in bad condition because this is where they sat.’”

Sinwar 60, became Hamas’ political leader in Gaza in 2017 and works closely with Hamas’s military wing. Known as the “butcher of Khan Younis” for his ruthless pursuit of Palestinian collaborators, in the days after October 7 he warned Israel the massacre was “just a rehearsal.”

A young man fills a cart amid the ruins in Khan Younis. Picture: Getty Images

“The leaders of the occupation [Israel] should know, Oct. 7 was just a rehearsal,” he said.

The tunnel in which he was hiding is part of a major network of passages raided by the IDF that ran under a cemetery in the Bani Suheila area of Khan Younis, the Times of Israel reports.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the tunnels contained “bedrooms of senior Hamas officials and the office of the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade’s Eastern Battalion, from where he directed the attack on October 7.”

He said the network also connects to tunnels where hostages were held.

IDF Special Forces destroyed the tunnel and its entrances after searching them.

However Israel and US officials Sinwar is living in a labyrinthine network of tunnels under Khan Younis, the southern city where he was born, surrounded by some of the remaining 130 hostages.

Men and youths gather to inspect a destroyed vehicle following overnight Israeli bombardment at the Rafah refugee camp. Picture: AFP

Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel on Tuesday of sabotaging truce talks after its raid on Gaza’s largest hospital, which Israel said targeted senior militants.

Israel’s military said dozens of Palestinian militants were killed Monday and hundreds detained during a raid on Gaza City’s Al-Shifa, a complex crowded with patients and displaced people.

“The actions of the Zionist occupation forces at Al-Shifa Medical Complex confirm their intent to obstruct the recovery of life in Gaza and dismantle essential aspects of human existence,” Haniyeh said.

“The deliberate targeting of police officers and government officials in Gaza illustrates their efforts to sow chaos and perpetuate violence among our resilient people. This also reveals the occupation leaders’ endeavour to sabotage ongoing negotiations in Doha,” he added.

Negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release were underway in Doha and a counter-proposal could soon be presented to Hamas, Qatar said on Tuesday.

Mossad head David Barnea had flown in for talks with the Qatari prime minister and Egyptian officials on Monday, the first since mediators failed to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.