US official: Sinwar likely alive in Gaza tunnel ‘with hostages in his vicinity’

Update on Hamas leader is most detailed in weeks from an administration member; US envoy slams Israel’s handling of humanitarian crisis amid intensified IDF ops in northern Gaza

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Hamas's Gaza Strip leader Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, October 10, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)
Hamas's Gaza Strip leader Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, October 10, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

The US believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is alive and likely hiding in an underground Gaza tunnel with hostages in his vicinity, White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk revealed on Wednesday.

“Yahya Sinwar remains the decision-maker. He remains — we believe — alive and in a tunnel underneath Gaza, holding hostages, and likely with hostages in his vicinity,” McGurk said during a High Holiday call the White House held with American rabbis.

McGurk’s remarks were the most detailed update regarding the status of Sinwar from a senior US official in weeks.

In recent days, Sinwar reportedly reestablished contact with Hamas officials outside of Gaza after more than a month in which he had not been heard from.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that Sinwar ordered commanders in the West Bank to renew suicide attacks in Israel shortly after he replaced Ismail Haniyeh as head of the terror organization’s politburo following the latter’s assassination in Tehran.

McGurk reiterated the administration’s belief that the war in Gaza could end immediately if Sinwar agreed to release the remaining 101 hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.

During their phone call earlier Wednesday, the White House said US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas.”

Yahya Sinwar, head of the Hamas terror group in Gaza, delivers a speech in Gaza City, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Biden also raised “the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately,” according to the US readout.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield separately issued a more-in-depth criticism of Israel over its handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The IDF said Sunday that its troops had encircled the city of Jabaliya in a new ground operation targeting efforts by Hamas to reestablish itself in the northern Strip. Ahead of the operation, the IDF issued a fresh batch of evacuation orders for towns in the area and said it was readying to order the evacuation of all northern Gaza where tens of thousands of Palestinians still reside.

“The United States is concerned by the situation in northern Gaza, including the announcement by Israel of a new evacuation order for several communities. We are particularly concerned that Palestinian civilians have nowhere safe to go,” Thomas-Greenfield said during a Security Council session on the Middle East.

“Already, there are devastating reports of the squalid conditions in the humanitarian zone in southern and central Gaza, where more than 1.5 million displaced civilians have fled. These catastrophic conditions were predicted months ago, and yet, have still not been addressed. That must change, and now. We call on Israel to take urgent steps to do so, and I reiterate the United States’ expectation that Palestinian civilians, including those evacuated from the north be permitted to return to their communities and rebuild,” the US envoy added.

“We are also concerned by recent actions by the Israeli government to limit the delivery of goods into Gaza. When combined with new bureaucratic limits placed on humanitarian goods arriving from Jordan, and the closure of most border crossings in recent weeks, these restrictions would only have the effect of intensifying suffering in Gaza,” said Thomas-Greenfield.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting in New York City, August 22, 2024. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP)

Turning to the Knesset’s recent advancement of legislation aiming to outlaw UNRWA’s operations in Israel and bar Israeli authorities from contacting officials from the UN relief agency for Palestinians, Thomas-Greenfield said the US is “deeply concerned” by the proposals.

Noting the allegations facing UNRWA, she said only “a small percentage” of its staffers have ties to terror groups and participated in the October 7 onslaught that started the Gaza war.

“At the same time, we know that UN personnel, including from UNRWA, are vital to the humanitarian response in Gaza and face tremendous danger while performing their work,” the US envoy said, calling on Israel to provide more information regarding allegations against UNRWA and for the agency to do a better job addressing those concerns.

The Jabaliya operation marked the fourth push into the northern Gaza city by the IDF since the start of the war a year ago. The military said this week that it was preparing to evacuate civilians from all of north Gaza, and would increase the size of the humanitarian zone.

The zone, where the vast majority of the Gazan population currently resides, is where most humanitarian aid is being delivered. There are also field hospitals there, but aid organizations have asserted that services there are insufficient and that it is massively overcrowded.

Tents of displaced Palestinians near the beach west of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on September 6, 2024 (Ali Hassan/Flash90)

Asked during a press briefing whether the US supports Israel’s renewed military operations in northern Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded that the Biden administration will always back Israel’s right to target terror operatives, while reiterating Washington’s call for Israel to plan for the post-war management of Gaza.

“We continue to have concerns that without a political plan, a plan for the day after in Gaza that includes a political path for the Palestinian people to realize their legitimate… aspirations, Israel is going to be bogged down conducting these types of operations for some time to come with terrible humanitarian effects for the Palestinian people and with real security problems for the Israeli people,” Miller said.

Miller added that the US still wants to see the implementation of its staged Gaza ceasefire proposal, which “would help answer this question about what the day after looks like for the situation in Gaza.”

However, he explained that Sinwar remains unwilling to engage in negotiations — as has been the case for several weeks.

“It is probably reasonable to conclude he’s watching what’s happening in the north, he’s watching Iran’s attacks against Israel, and thinking maybe he’s about to get what he’s always wanted, which is a full-scale regional war,” added Miller.

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