This is the moment Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s wife is spotted seemingly holding a $32,000 bag in the tunnel leading to his secret lair.
The IDF released disquieting images and videos showing Yahya Sinwar callously hiding out in relative comfort from his underground lair as he ordered his terror group to carry out the bloodiest massacre Israel has ever endured.
Sinwar – who was killed by a single gunshot to his head this week after being forced out of his underground lair in Gaza – planned to hide in comfort as his foot soldiers carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history on October 7, 2023.
He is widely considered to be the chief architect the bloody massacre, which saw 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage by Hamas and other terror groups, according to Israeli tallies.
Footage of his wife seems to show her entering the tunnel to the lair, carrying a Birkin bag, the day before the horrendous tragedy.
Footage of his wife seems to show her entering the tunnel to the lair, carrying a Birkin bag, the day before the horrendous tragedy. She is seen appearing to smile at the camera
This is the moment Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s wife is spotted seemingly holding a $32,000 bag in the tunnel leading to his secret lair
The time on the clock by the end of the footage is 1.32am, just five hours before the first terrorists were spotted breaching into Israeli territory
More than a year later, 101 hostages still remain in captivity in Gaza.
An IDF spokesperson posted the images of the wife on X, writing: ‘Did Sinwar’s wife enter the tunnel with him on October 6, carrying a Birkin bag estimated to cost about $32,000?!’
The IDF has also released a three-minute long video showing Sinwar, flanked by young children, mundanely carrying water bottles, plastic carrier bags, furniture and other supplies through a tunnel to his hideout.
Chillingly, the activity took place in the dead of night, just hours before Hamas launched the bloodiest massacre Israel has ever endured.
Sinwar can be seen repeatedly walking back and forth through the same tunnel, starting from 10.44pm on 6 October – just eight hours before terrified citizens first reported a mass terror attack.
The first to emerge through the dark tunnel, with power cables snaking the entire length of the ceiling, are two young children with backpacks.
One wears a Barcelona FC shirt and a backpack, the other a blue Ronaldo shirt sporting the number 7 on his back, and an additional pink bag over his shoulder,
These are the disquieting images that show Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was callously hiding out in relative comfort from his underground lair as he ordered his terror group to carry out the bloodiest massacre Israel has ever endured
Sinwar’s lair, discovered by Israeli soldiers in the Tel al-Sultan area, was well-resourced, with food, water and other supplies to help him survive for months underground
Behind them is Sinwar, holding plastic bags in his hand, followed by a woman wearing a hijab and carrying a black handbag who is thought to be his wife.
When she notices the camera above, she briefly pauses and smiles, before continuing on.
Minutes later, Sinwar is seen again, this time returning with more bags.
By 11.41pm and in the moments following, Sinwar can be seen carrying in water bottles and large bags on his back in a repeated process that continues for the next few hours.
Throughout, Sinwar remains chillingly calm and walks at a casual pace.
At 12.46am, one of the young boys can be seen still helping Sinwar, who has begun moving in small items of furniture and cushions.
Almost an hour later, at 1.32am, the young boy and Sinwar haul in a larger object, which has been covered in a grey-patterned cloth.
The time on the clock by the end of the footage is 1.32am, just five hours before the first terrorists were spotted breaching into Israeli territory.
Two images provide evidence of the meticulous planning that went into ensuring Sinwar remained well-resourced in his underground lair, which was discovered by Israeli soldiers in the Tel al-Sultan area.
They show how the Hamas leader could watch his terror group’s exploits on a wall-mounted television from the comfort of a makeshift sofa with cushions and pillows.
Fans anchored to the walls steadied the hot and humid temperatures during the warmer months, while a clock, reading books, chairs and other supplies spread around the room helped sustain his stay underground.
A second image shows several more chairs, a Hamas flag – and even a makeshift laundry line.
A unit from the IDF’s 828th Bislamach Brigade was patrolling Tal al-Sultan, an area of Rafah, on Wednesday morning, when it came across a group of three Hamas fighters in the street and engaged them in a firefight.
The terrorists were ‘on the run’ moving from house to house, the IDF said, and became split up.
One of them, since identified as Sinwar, ‘ran alone into one of the buildings’. He went up to the second floor, and troops responded by firing a tank shell in his direction.
The unit, made up of trainee infantry commanders and reservists, then began to sweep the area, according to Israeli media.
Two grenades were thrown at them, one of which exploded while the other failed to go off, Ynet reports.
The troops decided it was too dangerous to proceed and pulled back, sending in a mini drone to trace the fleeing fighter instead.
Dramatic footage released by the IDF shows the bloodied Sinwar, his face concealed by a scarf, throwing a stick in a final attempt to defend himself against the drone just seconds before he was assassinated.
Two 120mm tank shells slammed into the building, as well as a surface-to-surface Matador missile, according to Israeli reports, with shrapnel scything across the upper floors.
Unaware they had taken out Israel’s prime target, the soldiers did not return to the site until Thursday morning, when soldiers from the 450th Infantry Battalion were sent in to get a closer look.
As they inspected the dead, they realised one bore a striking resemblance to the Hamas leader.
The architect of the October 7 massacre and Israel ‘s most wanted man, Sinwar was killed on Wednesday after being hunted by intelligence services and the Israeli Defence Forces for over a year. Pictured: Sinwar in December 2022
Graphic images emerged of his corpse lying on the rubble surrounded by Israeli soldiers, while close ups showed a catastrophic head wound and multiple injuries.
He was found with a weapon, a flak jacket and 40,000 shekels (£8,250).
‘Yahya Sinouar had a lot of cash and fake passports on him, he was ready to flee,’ Israeli army spokesman Colonel Olivier Rafowicz told French outlet CNEWS.
He claimed that the items Sinwar had on him, which allegedly also included a card from UNRWA, the UN aid for Palestinian refugees, ‘may show that he was ready to flee and leave Gaza and his men behind.’
Booby traps around the area meant the corpse had to be left in place, but part of one of his fingers was removed and sent for testing.
Confirmation of his death took several hours, with multiple tests carried out, and his identity eventually confirmed with dental records and fingerprints.
Four hours after it confirmed it was investigating whether the Hamas leader had been killed, the military issued a simple message on social media: ‘Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar.’
Sinwar had been a prime target for Israeli forces since October 7, but Israel was allegedly hesitant to make an assassination attempt amid reports that he was surrounded by Israeli hostages and was carrying a bag packed with explosives.
It is believed that Sinwar had been moving from place to place without the hostages since the end of August, when six abductees – Carmel Gat, Hirsch Goldberg-Poulin, Alex Lubnov, Almog Sarosi, Uri Danino and the late Aden Yerushalmi – were found dead in a tunnel, according to a new report by N12.
Israeli troops reported no sign of hostages at the location where he was killed.
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, confirmed the Hamas leader’s death in a televised statement on Thursday night.
He said: ‘Sinwar was responsible for the most brutal attack against Israel in our history when terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel, massacred Israelis in their homes, raped our women, burned entire families alive and took over 250 men, women and children, babies, hostage to Gaza.
‘For the past year, Sinwar tried to escape justice. He failed. We said we would find him and bring him to justice, and we did.
‘It was Yahya Sinwar who decided to wage war with Israel while hiding behind civilians in Gaza.’
He added that 101 hostages still remain in captivity in ‘brutal conditions’.