A top Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) commander has said that his forces were "minutes away" from capturing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza tunnel but the militant leader managed to get away.
Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus told Israeli media Channel12 in an interview that the troops managed to get inside the compound of the building where Sinawar stayed. "We were close. We were in his compound. We got to an underground compound. It was hot," Goldfus said, referring to Sinwar's coffee.
Sinawar, allegedly the architect of the October 7 attacks on Israel, was appointed the new leader of the militant group last week after the death of its political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Sinawar, who is currently holed up in Gaza, is the group’s chief decision-maker and is said to be in control of the 120 Israeli hostages. The founding member of Hamas, 61-year-old Sinawar is viewed as one of Hamas’s most extreme figures and Israel's 'most wanted man'.
Goldfus added: "We found a lot of money there. The coffee was still hot. Weapons strewn around."
In December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army had surrounded Sinwar’s house. However, nothing more has been mentioned about it since then. It is not clear if Goldfus was mentioning that operation.
Israel has vowed to kill Sinwar after accusing him of being the architect of the October 7 attack. The IDF had earlier aired a clip showing troops giving a tour of one of the tunnels that Sinwar, his family, and other senior Hamas officials had been using as a compound during the war. It had two bathrooms, a stocked kitchen, an area to sleep in, and a separate room that the IDF said belonged to Sinwar himself, in which soldiers found a safe with millions in cash.
Not many even within Hamas know the whereabouts of Sinawar, according to The Times of Israel. He is said to be staying in Gaza and communicates with Hamas officials once every two weeks and sometimes even once a week. This is done via a series of intermediaries to avoid detection.
Usually, his messages are handwritten or printed and signed by him and moved manually from person to person until they reach their destination. However, in rare cases, a phone call has been arranged with special security protocols.