PM: IDF encircling Sinwar’s home; Israel pressuring for ICRC visits to hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms earlier reports that IDF forces are encircling a home in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis belonging to Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, though the premier appears to indicate that Sinwar is not currently there.

“His home isn’t his castle, and he can flee, but it’s just a matter of time until we get to him,” Netanyahu says in a video statement in Hebrew.

IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari later says in response to a question about Netanyahu’s remark that “Sinwar’s home is the Khan Younis area” — indicating that no specific building serving as a resident for Sinwar is being encircled.

The premier adds that Israel is putting pressure for the Red Cross to visit the remaining hostages being held by terrorists in Gaza. He says he has told the organization’s president today to demand that Qatar use its influence over Hamas to secure such visits and a supply of medications for them.

Israel insisted last month that Red Cross visits were part of the deal for a truce and the release of women and kids from captivity in Gaza, but at the time, Qatar and the Red Cross refused to confirm that it was included.

Today, the Red Cross’s head of strategic communications, Patricia Rey González, told Israel’s Channel 12 news in an interview that the organization has not yet received a “green light” to visit the hostages, adding that it is a top priority.