International media has just published videos and images released by Israel, claiming that they are the last moments of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
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| Yemeni soldiers stand in front of a billboard depicting Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. (Source: AP) |
CNN 's story goes that early one morning in Washington, DC, senior US officials first received news and images from their Israeli counterparts: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was likely dead.
For more than a year since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, Israeli forces, with covert help from the United States, have been hunting for the mastermind of that day.
Many times, they were very close, pushing the Hamas leader from one underground hideout to another.
Yet he moved like a “ghost in the endless maze” of tunnels dug beneath Gaza’s streets, rarely emerging above ground and communicating only through couriers to avoid detection by electronic surveillance equipment.
Finally, by chance, a group of Israeli soldiers came across Israel's most wanted man.
Earlier, a group of soldiers from the Bislach Brigade (IDF), were ordered to track down a number of men in southern Gaza, which was destroyed by Israel's punitive bombing campaign.
Gunfire rang out. Israeli soldiers returned fire from tanks and flew drones into one of the hollowed-out buildings.
The next morning, when the gunfight ended and Israeli troops returned to examine the rubble, they realized one of the bodies was Sinwar's.
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| A still from drone video released by the IDF of the final moments of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. (Source: The Wrap) |
Sudden death
His death marked the end of a years-long manhunt that consumed much of the time of Israeli and US intelligence agencies and dominated discussions about what to do to end the conflict.
According to CNN , the US intelligence agency (CIA) has established a specific task force to monitor Sinwar; and after October 7, the US side increased intelligence resources to this area to collect information about the Hamas movement and its leader.
However, multiple US officials told CNN that the moment of his death was indeed unexpected.
Israeli and US officials have often given general impressions of the Sinwar area for months on end, but the elusive Hamas leader has been on the move, making his whereabouts extremely difficult to pin down.
He completely eschews cell phones and electronic communications. Instead, Sinwar sends handwritten notes to convey his instructions to military commanders inside and outside Gaza, including those who are acting as his representatives in potential ceasefire negotiations. Sometimes it takes days or weeks to hear back from Sinwar as couriers relay handwritten messages back and forth.
Sinwar has not been seen in public since October 7. His only known direct communication with the outside world has been through a number of letters, most recently to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah said it had written to Nasrallah reaffirming its commitment to fighting Israel and supporting the so-called "axis of resistance" alliance.
Sinwar has long been known to be extremely careful about his personal security. It is unclear what brought him to the surface that day - a fateful decision.
Elusive, out of reach
Before that, it seemed like the IDF was always one step behind Sinwar.
In 2024, the Israel Defense Forces could enter the newly discovered Sinwar tunnels at least three times.
In January, a senior IDF commander said DNA results helped Israel confirm that he was hiding in a tunnel under the city of Khan Younis in early October 2023. However, CNN was unable to independently confirm that analysis.
International media have not been able to access Gaza independently since the conflict began. The only way to enter the area is with an Israeli military escort.
In February, surveillance camera footage showed Sinwar inside a tunnel in the same area just days after the October 7 attack, moving through the dark tunnel with his wife, child and brother.
As the IDF began to approach the city of Khan Younis, where he was born, Sinwar appeared to move south again.
The IDF said it found his DNA in a tunnel in Rafah, just a few hundred meters from where six hostages were killed in August.
The place where he died was not far from that tunnel, in an area of Rafah called Tal Al Sultan, which was surrounded by the Israeli army.
As Israel hunts for Hamas members hiding in its vast network of underground tunnels, the IDF has at times sent in dogs, ferrets and robots instead of soldiers.
When one dog failed to return to the surface, the IDF questioned whether it was due to a lack of oxygen in some parts of the tunnel, which was several levels below ground. Shots from the robots confirmed the presence of Hamas forces. However, they were repeatedly frustrated that the leader remained out of reach.
Apparently the IDF did not know he was near Tal Al Sultan until he was killed.
In mid-September, the IDF brought CNN and other media to the area. At the time, the IDF gave no indication that Sinwar might be there, and it was unlikely they would take reporters to a location where they believed he was hiding.
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| A still image from a video released by the IDF purporting to show the final moments of Yahya Sinwar. (Source: AP) |
Last minute
A day after the death, senior Israeli and US officials remained in close contact as the IDF worked to confirm with certainty that the body found in the rubble north of Rafah was indeed Sinwar.
Hours before official confirmation, photos of Sinwar's body confirmed that the "final boss" of the October 7 attack was dead.
According to Israeli records, in his final reactions, Sinwar, along with two other men, threw grenades and fired at surrounding Israeli soldiers. Sinwar, wearing a vest, armed with a gun with a few Israelis, fled alone to another building.
The Israeli military flew a drone into the building where he was hiding and footage released by the Israeli military shows his final moments.
The drone hovers over a room in a high-rise building, where a masked figure sits alone in a chair, surrounded by dust and rubble. The figure holds a piece of wood in his hand, and throws it at the drone, before the video cuts to the end.
Over the past several months, US officials believe Sinwar has become increasingly hardened — both in his determination to continue fighting Israel in Gaza and in his view of his own destiny.
US officials assessed that Sinwar did not expect to survive and believed he would eventually be killed, so he had little incentive to agree to a ceasefire and was determined to fight, causing negotiations to repeatedly stall.
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cau-chuyen-ve-nhung-khoanh-khac-cuoi-cung-cua-thu-linh-nhom-hamas-bi-am-sat-290693.html
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