IDF recovered Sinwar’s DNA in tunnel complex where 6 hostages were executed
Israeli forces determined several weeks ago that the Hamas chief had been in underground room near where the slain Israelis were found in late August
The IDF found Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s DNA some weeks ago in a Rafah tunnel which was in the same complex as — but a few hundred meters from — a separate tunnel where six Israeli hostages were murdered in late August, The Times of Israel learned on Thursday.
IDF and Shin Bet forces were searching the tunnel, which was part of the same complex in which the six hostages were killed, and found a room that they believed senior Hamas commanders may have used.
They took DNA samples from the underground room and found that some of it belonged to Sinwar, but were not able to pin down when he was there.
The mastermind behind Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which started the ongoing war, Sinwar was long reported to have surrounded himself with hostages, from among the 251 people kidnapped during the assault.
When news of his death broke on Thursday, Israeli officials were quick to specify that no hostages had been found in his vicinity.
An unsourced report on Channel 12 said that Sinwar had previously been hiding with the six hostages, and that the firefight on Wednesday in which he was killed along with two bodyguards took place in the same area where the hostages were held and killed.
Sinwar likely gave the order to kill the six hostages as he fled the area, the report added.
Hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi are believed to have been executed by their captors on August 29, before being discovered by troops less than two days later.
The tunnel where their bodies were found was a narrow 120-meter-long passageway — not tall enough to stand in without bending over — that connected parts of a large underground network in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, which according to the IDF belonged to Hamas’s Rafah Brigade.
Gil Dickmann, Carmel Gat’s cousin, called on the government and world leaders to leverage Sinwar’s death to negotiate the immediate release of the remaining 101 hostages.
“We don’t know if he pulled the trigger, or ordered their deaths, it’s devastating to us and shows how close we were to getting them out,” said Dickmann, at a press conference.
“We don’t know for how long they were held together or with Sinwar or the conversations they were having. Now all six are gone and so is Sinwar, but when the six were murdered we said we don’t know who murdered them and don’t care about revenge, we care only about bringing back the 101 hostages.”
Sinwar was widely seen as a major obstacle to a deal, and world leaders have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use the opportunity to negotiate the remaining captives’ release.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
