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ISRAEL is likely to know where Hamas terror boss Yahya Sinwar is hiding, a former Israeli intelligence officer has said.
Security expert Avi Melamed warned The Sun that the brute – dubbed Gaza’s Bin Laden – could be using Israeli hostages as human shields to dodge assassination.
Israel may know where the hideout spots of Hamas terror chief Yahya SinwarReuters
Experts fear Sinwar is using Israeli hostages as human shields to evade a possible assassination attemptRex
Israel Defense Forces - IDFSinwar, 61, has been described as Israel’s most-wanted man in Gaza and the Israeli military has declared him a “dead man walking”.
He is feared to have masterminded the October 7 bloodbath six months ago after which the IDF made it their top mission to hunt down the terror boss.
In December, Israel surrounded the Hamas chief’s house but failed to catch him as he was believed to have already fled underground.
The Hamas chief has been using the terror group’s extensive tunnel network to dodge the IDF.
But Avi says Israel may now know the hideouts of the brute who has been evading the IDF since the start of the Gaza war.
The expert, who has previously worked as a senior advisor to Israel’s top politicians, believes the IDF may have extensive intelligence on Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders.
But it is feared the terror bosses have surrounded themselves with human hostages – preventing Israel from bombing their hideouts.
Avi told The Sun: “I would not be surprised if Israel knows where Yahya Sinwar is.
“Israel may be aware of where other Hamas leaders are currently hiding but unwilling to target them due to the hostages being intentionally held in the same places.”
Avi believes the IDF’s recent drone strike that wiped out Sinwar’s henchman Marwan Issa proves the level of intelligence Israel has on Hamas leaders.
Branded the “Shadow Man”, Issa was number three on the IDF’s most-wanted list following the horrors of Hamas’ massacre in Israel which killed 1,200 people.
He was the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing and acted as one of Yahya Sinwar‘s henchmen.
The IDF took out Issa inside his terror hideout while ensuring no Israeli captives were hurt.
And Avi says this is only possible with the high level of Israeli human assets present inside the terror network of Hamas.
“The success of Israel’s operation against Marwan Issa illustrates the level of human asset penetration that Israeli Intelligence has into Hamas’s remaining forces in Gaza,” he said.
“In order to have planned and executed such an operation, Israel would have needed to know where and when Issa was hiding.
“They would also have needed to confirm that no Israeli captives were being held near him as human shields – something that could have only been confirmed via a human asset.
This could also indicate that Israel is aware of the location of top Hamas leaders.
I would not be surprised if Israel knows where Yahya Sinwar is
Avi MelamedSinwar, according to intelligence sources, is reportedly on the move constantly in an attempt to dodge capture and assassination.
The terror group’s complicated network of tunnels, which runs underneath the Gaza Strip, is used for hiding militants, holding hostages and storing weaponry.
In February, a shocking clip released by the IDF appeared to show the Sinwar slinking away through a maze of terror tunnels.
The minute-long footage showed the Hamas boss walking behind his wife along with three of his young children – with one of them clutching a doll – in a tunnel underneath the terrorist stronghold Khan Younis.
The IDF claimed the man in the footage was Sinwar but provided no additional evidence to support the claims.
After unleashing carnage in Israel, thousands of cowardly Hamas terrorists retreated to the vast labyrinth and are thought to have taken with them dozens of abducted captives, including children snatched from their murdered parents.
Hidden up to 100ft below the surface, the entrances are enclosed under the floors of homes, mosques and schools – allowing fighters to move unseen between homes and alleyways within Gaza.
Israel has previously claimed that Sinwar dropped off the radar even inside his own terror cell as he has been uncontactable for weeks.
Avi says Yahya SInwar is facing extreme challenges communicating with Hamas – and is totally dependent on human messengers who are carrying his information back and forth.
[Sinwar] is extremely conscious [about getting caught] and is not using any electronic device. He is totally dependent on human messengers to carry his messages back and forth
The ex-Israeli Intelligence Officer told The Sun: “It is very much possible that Sinwar has lost the ability to conduct ongoing communication with his colleagues.
“He is extremely conscious and is not using any mobile phones or any other electronic device.
“He is totally dependent on human messengers to carry his messages back and forth.”
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant previously claimed that Hamas is now frantically looking for a replacement for Sinwar.
Amid questions that hang over who could replace the terror boss, Mohammed Deif seems to be a promising name who could take the helm and march Hamas forward.
The one-eyed chief, known as the anonymous “voice of war”, has lurked in the shadows for years.
A man of infamy, terror and anonymity – he has long haunted the Gaza Strip as the commander of al-Qassam brigades, Hamas’s military wing.
For decades, Israel has relentlessly pursued Deif as he has moved in darkness, through underground tunnels and safe houses across in the Gaza Strip.
There are only two existing decade-old photos of Deif – known as “The Guest” – and he has not been seen in public for decades.
The shadowy figure has been wanted by Israeli intelligence since the 1990s when he first began establishing al-Qassam Brigades.
Who is Mohammed Deif?
ONE-eyed, wheel-chair bound maniac Mohammed Deif started from nothing but rode the tides of fury and terror to command the ruthless fighters responsible for the deaths of 1,000 Israelis.
The Hamas chief was born Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri in 1965 and grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza.
He would later become known as only Deif — which means “The Guest” in Arabic – a nod to his life spent on the run, staying with sympathisers and evading Israeli assassins and air strikes.
Little is known about his childhood, but it was spent enduring the grinding Israel-Palestinian conflict that has long scarred the Middle East.
The shadowy figure has been wanted by Israeli intelligence since the 1990s when he first began establishing al-Qassam Brigades.
He is believed to have first joined Hamas in the late 1980s, hardened in his pursuit to wage armed resistance against Israel.
Deif began rising in influence and power and reportedly was a close confidante of Yehya Ayyash – a bomb-maker known as “the engineer”.
The militant commander was responsible for a deadly spate of bus bombings in Israel in the 1990s until he was eventually assassinated in 1996.
But the bombings continued with Deif believed to be at the helm and hell-bent on revenge for the killing of his former ally.
Hundreds of Israeli’s were killed in the suicide attacks that the terror chief orchestrated on buses and in cafes.
In 2002, he took over as leader of Hamas’ militant wing, where he designed both their signature Qassam rocket and a matrix of underground tunnels in Gaza.
Deif has spent most of his adult life confined to these tunnels as Israel attempts to target him from above.
He survived numerous assassination attempts throughout the 2000s, escaping some with life-altering injuries
Marwan Issa, Hamas’ third in command, was killed in an Israeli strike
Reuters
Members of the terror group Hamas led by Sinwar
GettyBrutal past
Sinwar has spent 22 years in an Israeli prison for terrorist murder and kidnap plots and spent every second honing his burning hatred for his captors.
His astonishing rise to the top of the Hamas terror tree came despite being sentenced to four life sentences in 1989 for planning the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians he suspected of working with Israel.
The bearded beast’s life was first saved when he was cured of cancer by an operation in a prison.
Then in 2011, he was freed, among 1,026 others, in a prisoner exchange for a single Israeli soldier in a deal that has been damned by his thousands of victims ever since.
Israeli intelligence chiefs told how — even while in prison — the fanatical fiend killed as many as 15 Palestinians he suspected of treachery, usually with a razor blade or machete.
Bombshell documents previously revealed the chilling confessions of the warlord who, in his own words, described how he became a serial killer in Palestine as he rose through the terrorist ranks.
The secret documents from the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence service are transcripts from more than 150 hours of interrogations of Sinwar when he was first captured in late 1989.
He gave detailed accounts of his killings, even reportedly showing where he had dumped and buried his victims’ bodies.
Encouraged by his proud mentor, he freely admitted his role with Majd – Hamas’ “security service” – as he took interrogators through each gruesome killing.
The documents, first revealed by the Israeli paper Israel Hayom, suggest Sinwar also told the investigators that although he had a gun, he preferred to kill people with his hands.
In one case, Sinwar described mounting surveillance on a Palestinian called Rasmi Salim following claims he had turned his back on Islam and was now collaborating with Israel.
In a second murder, Sinwar kidnapped a man called Adnan Safur. After beating him Sinwar claimed Safur had admitted collaborating with Israel.
“I suffocated him with a keffiyeh (Arab scarf), we dug in the place and Rawhi and I buried him there,” Sinwar admitted.
In another case, he abducted a man called Fathi Issa from a refugee camp.
He described burying his body in an orchard after killing him.
A fourth murder was a man called Hussein al-Sir, also from Khan Yunis, described as “a wealthy man who used to show off his Mercedes car”.
Sinwar said: “When we found him inside his vehicle, I took out the gun and threatened him. I put the gun to his neck, I told him ‘get in my car’, and when he got out of his car he started to resist.
“I pressed the gun to his neck so that he would get in the car, but then a bullet came out and hit him because I left the hatch open. We quickly put him in the car and drove away.”
israelhayom
AFP
Israeli special forces hunting for Sinwar and Hamas leaders
English (US)