Yahya Sinwar | How Israeli soldiers found the elusive Hamas leader in Gaza

According to the American newspaper The New York Times, based on four Israeli defense sources, on Wednesday of last week a unit of squadron commanders in training unexpectedly encountered Sinwar in Rafah, southern Gaza. It was the Bislach Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Initially they did not know that the leader of Hamas He was one of the three militiamen with whom they exchanged fire.

Two of the Palestinian militants fled toward one building, while a third entered another, triggering a gunfight that lasted hours, according to the Israeli military.

Finally, the soldiers, supported by drones and tanks, killed the three Palestinian militants.

One of them, as seen in videos released by Israelwas located in a ruined building by a drone. At that time they did not know that it was Sinwar.

The video shows a man sitting in a chair, covered in dust and with his head covered. He watches the drone for at least 20 seconds before throwing a stick in its direction.

On Friday, the IDF provided more information about the operation: “The forces began searches during which They encountered terrorists who shot them and threw grenades. The fighters returned fire and hit the terrorists who tried to escape and divided into two nearby buildings in the area”.

“The forces continued their activities and searches in the area to “close a circle on the terrorists, they attacked the buildings with tank fire and eliminated the militiamen,” the IDF added.

On Thursday morning, troops returned to the site to inspect it. The area was still full of explosive devicestwo officers told the NYT.

The soldiers realized that one of the corpses had facial features similar to Sinwar. They thought the body had an explosive in the camouflage. They cut off one of his fingers so that the print could be analyzed. The analyzes confirmed that it was the leader of Hamas.

Israel I had signed up Sinwar because he had been in their prisons three times.

The fatal wound was a gunshot to the head.

On Thursday night, the body of Sinwar arrived at the national forensic institute of Israel for the autopsy.

The doctor Chen ballwho supervised the autopsygave an interview to the New York Times where he described his findings.

He said that during the shootout with the soldiers, shrapnel, possibly from a small missile or a tank shell, hit Sinwar in the right arm and wounded him..

He added that at one point, Sinwar He tied an electrical cord around his injured arm, trying to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. “But it wouldn’t have worked in any case.”Kugel said. “He wasn’t strong enough and his forearm was shattered.”

The forensic expert maintained that The fatal wound that ended his life was a gunshot to the head. It is not known when the fatal shot was fired, what weapon was used and who fired it.

The director of the institute stated that Sinwar He had a healthy weight – more than 70 kilos – and showed no signs of malnutrition.

After the completion of the autopsythe body was handed over to the Israeli army, Dr. Kugel told the NYT. Israel preserves the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians that it hopes to one day use for a future exchange with Hamas. and other armed groups, the American newspaper noted.

Searched by the best intelligence services

The CNN network indicated that the death of Sinwar marks the end of a year of persecution that had involved the Israeli intelligence services and Americans. He indicated that the CIA had created a specific working group to track down the leader of Hamas and that after October 7, the United States sent a large number of intelligence resources to the region to gather information about his whereabouts.

He added that Israeli and American officials had a general idea of ​​the area in which Sinwar He had been hiding in these months. But it moved constantly, which made it extremely difficult to locate.

On Saturday, Israel published an unpublished video where Sinwar is seen just a few hours before the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas in Israeli territory. He is in a tunnel in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, hiding with his family and gathering food and blankets. In the video, Sinwar appears accompanied by his wife and son walking.

Sinwar did not use mobile phones or other electronic communication systems. He sent written notes through messengers to convey his instructions both to military commanders inside Gaza and to Hamas officials in Doha negotiating a possible ceasefire.

CNN stated that on occasions, interlocutors had to wait days or weeks to receive information from Sinwarso that the messengers had time to transmit the writings from one place to another.

Since October 7, Sinwar had not appeared publicly. At this time some of his communications became public, such as the letter he wrote in September to the leader of HezbollahHassan Nasrallah, before he was killed in an Israeli bombing. Sinwar had reaffirmed to Nasrallah his commitment to fight against Israel and support the alliance of regional militants backed by Iran and known as Resistance Axis.

Why did Sinwar surface on Wednesday? That is one of the questions the world is asking about someone who had been extremely careful with his personal safety.