UN Bags And Millions Of Shekels: Inside Slain Hamas Chief Sinwar's Bunker In Gaza | Video

Yahya Sinwar was ready to hide out of the Gaza war with UN food rations, thousands in cash, and other basic amenities, Israeli officials said, as a video of the slain Hamas leader’s bunker resurfaced on social media days after his killing.

The video footage gave a peek into how the October 7 attack perpetrator spent his days in Khan Younis before he was forced to flee to Rafah, where he was killed last week. The video, first released in February, shows living quarters for Sinwar and his guards, with a stocked kitchen that helped the members of the Palestinian outfit ride out the war decimating Gaza above ground.

“The IDF has released footage showing their entry into Sinwar’s bunker, where UNWRA bags and millions of shekels were found. Sinwar and other Hamas leaders have been siphoning billions from the people of Gaza, allegedly with @UNWRA’s involvement,” said David Saranga, Ambassador, and Director of Israel’s Digital Diplomacy Bureau, in a post on X.

In a video making rounds on X, the IDF soldier giving the tour showed off a bag of food with the label of the embattled UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) group. Besides the cache of food, the Israeli military also found bathrooms and showers in the bunker that were notably cleaner and more modern than other baths found in Hamas’ tunnel system.

Sinwar Killing

The head of Israel’s military, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said Israel’s pursuit of Sinwar over the past year drove him “to act like a fugitive, causing him to change locations multiple times”. After a manhunt that had lasted for more than a year, the Israeli troops that killed Sinwar were initially unaware that they had caught their country’s number one enemy after a gun battle on Wednesday.

Dental records, fingerprints and DNA testing provided final confirmation of Sinwar’s death for Israel and on Friday. Intelligence services had been gradually restricting the area where Sinwar could operate, the military said. However, unlike other militant leaders tracked down by Israel, the encounter that finally killed Sinwar was not a planned and targeted strike, or an operation carried out by elite commandos.

When the troops reached him, his body was found with a weapon, a flak jacket and USD 10,731 as well as various documents that suggested he was forced to shift location as the Israeli search closed around him. He had money on him, documents and he was on the go. In the last months of his life, the main architect of Oct. 7, 2023, appears to have stopped using telephones and other communication equipment that would have allowed Israel’s powerful intelligence services to track him down.

Israeli officials believe he was hiding in one of the vast network of tunnels that Hamas dug beneath Gaza over the past two decades. Dozens of operations by the military and intelligence services had gradually restricted his movements to the area near the southern city of Rafah where he was finally caught, the military said. Israeli troops had come close to catching him in Khan Younis,  forcing him to leave the tunnel network where Israeli officials believe he had been sheltering for months.

(With agency inputs)