[Times of Israel]
Only two or three people know the whereabouts of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, sources from the terror group told London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday.
“A very small circle of no more than two or three people at most knows his whereabouts and secures his various needs, as well as ensuring his communication with the movement’s leaders inside and outside,” a source told the outlet.
“[Israel] failed to reach many of the first and second-tier leaders [of Hamas] on the political and military levels, but it tried to assassinate some of them, some of whom were injured, and some of whom survived and came out unharmed from bombing operations in different areas and targets, but Sinwar is not among them,” the source said.
The sources quoted in the report did not specify whether Sinwar was hiding above or below ground. In February, the Israel Defense Forces released footage of what it said was Sinwar walking through a Gaza tunnel with several of his family members on October 10.
Sources close to Sinwar told the outlet they believe the accused mastermind of the October 7 massacre would not consider a deal that would see him exiled.
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“Sinwar is thinking of two options, with no third option as long as he is alive — either to fulfill the resistance’s conditions of stopping the war, the withdrawal of the occupation forces, and completing an honorable exchange deal, or to obtain the honor of martyrdom,” a source said.
“Beyond that, in his personal thinking, there are no other options. Such a proposal [exile from Gaza] is fundamentally unacceptable for Sinwar, and he cannot even think about it,” the source said.
It has been reported in the past that Israel could be open to a deal that would see Sinwar exiled from the Gaza Strip. Israel had previously pledged that all Hamas leaders in Gaza would be killed or captured.
The war in Gaza broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
In response, Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 37,500 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Among the 15,000 terrorists killed by the IDF are a number of top Hamas officials, but the army has not yet caught or killed Sinwar.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 322.
