WP: Hamas leader hiding in Gaza, but killing him risks hostages

Israeli and US intelligence believes that Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yehiya Sinwar, is hiding in the tunnels under Khan Younis.

He is surrounded by a “human shield” of hostages, which makes the operation to eliminate him or capture him extremely difficult, The Washington Post (WP) reports.

Israeli, American and Western intelligence sources told the Washington Post that discovering Sinwar's lair is easier than carrying out an operation to capture or kill him in a way that does not endanger the lives of the hostages he holds close to him.

The Washington Post article notes that in recent days, several sources have suggested that Sinwar could have moved several kilometres south to Rafah. At the same time, Israel is confident that he could not have crossed the border with Egypt.

The man who planned the October 7 attacks is still hiding in an extensive network of tunnels near Khan Younis, the city where he was born in 1962, according to US and Israeli assessments.

The publication writes extremely carefully about the US contribution to the “hunt for Israel’s most-wanted man.” The newspaper's sources say U.S. intelligence analysts are helping Israel map Hamas tunnels using " powerful analytic technologies," as well as decrypt encrypted messages and information retrieved from the terrorist group's computer hard drives and servers. The publication emphasizes that there are no American intelligence agents in the Gaza Strip, and Americans do not participate in the daily operations of the IDF.