The leader of the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yehya al-Sinwar, recently inspected areas where clashes took place between the militant group and Israeli forces, a senior Hamas official told the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, owned by Qatar.
Al-Sinwar has led the movement on the ground and reports of him being “isolated in the tunnels” are merely claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his agencies “to cover up their failure to achieve the objectives set on the Israeli streets and its allies,” the official said.
Al-Sinwar recently met with some of the movement’s fighters on the ground – not in the tunnels – and also briefed Hamas leaders abroad, providing them with “accurate figures and field reports on the strength of the resistance and its ability to to confront the occupying power’. source added.
Israel says it believes the Hamas leadership, including al-Sinwar, is hiding in underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the militant Palestinian organization has released another video of a hostage kidnapped from Israel.
The video released Wednesday shows a 24-year-old man making accusations against the Israeli government. He accused the government of failing to protect Israeli citizens and abandoning them.
It was initially unclear under what circumstances the video was made and whether the man spoke of his own free will or under threat.
The recording was also undated. The Hamas massacre that sparked the conflict in Gaza took place 201 days ago on Wednesday. The man kidnapped from the Nova music festival also said in the video that 70 hostages in the Gaza Strip had been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Following the release of a hostage video by Hamas, there were spontaneous protests in Israel on Wednesday evening.
According to several media reports, hundreds of people gathered in Jerusalem near Netanyahu’s home to demonstrate for the release of the hostages.
The protesters also included friends of the kidnapped young man seen in the video. Protesters clashed with police.
According to police reports, protesters lit fires and fireworks and knocked over trash cans. They also blocked traffic. Security forces tried to disperse them. At least four people were arrested.
For months, demonstrators have been calling on the Israeli government to strike a new deal with Hamas to secure the release of the hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has reportedly rejected proposals from international mediators. In return, Israel is unwilling to meet all of Hamas’s demands. Relatives of those kidnapped also accuse the government of standing in the way of a hostage situation.
Israel says it currently does not know how many of the people kidnapped in the Gaza Strip are dead or under what circumstances they died.
Until a few weeks ago, Israel believed that just under 100 of the 130 remaining hostages were still alive. However, it is now feared that significantly more of them are already dead.
“The hostages are dying out, with estimates saying less than half are still alive,” the Israeli news website ynet recently reported.
The people kidnapped from Israel were in an “underground hell” without food, water or medical treatment, the kidnapped man further said in the video published by Hamas’s military wing, the so-called Qassam Brigades. He also called on the Israeli government to bring the hostages home.
The images show the young man with a missing forearm. According to Israeli media, his forearm was torn off when Gaza Strip terrorists threw grenades or artillery fire into a shelter where he and other people had sought shelter on October 7.
According to Israeli media reports, the man is an Israeli-American.
The Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented carnage that left more than 1,200 dead by militants from the Palestinian Hamas movement and other Islamist groups in Israel on October 7.
Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive. Given the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel is increasingly criticized internationally.
