IDF recently declined strike on Hamas leader Sinwar over fears of killing Israeli hostages - report

According to a recent report in local media, Israel recently passed up the opportunity to eliminate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip out of concern for the remaining Israeli hostages.

Sinwar, who was chosen as the political leader of Hamas following the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh, is one of Israel's most-wanted terrorists, if not the most wanted.

Along with his brother Mohammed Sinwar, and recently eliminated military commander Mohammed Dief, Sinwar is believed to have directed and commanded the Oct. 7 massacres.  

On Sunday evening, the "Main Edition” program on N12 News, announced that Israel’s security establishment received the "golden news" of an exceptional operational opportunity to eliminate Sinwar in the Gaza Strip. However, after investigating the situation, the leadership decided not to carry out a strike due to the high risk of harm to hostages in his vicinity. 

Sinwar is believed to be hiding in tunnels in the Gaza Strip, surrounded by hostages who are functioning as human shields for the Hamas leader. Sinwar understands that Israel will refrain from conducting strikes that could endanger the lives of the hostages. 

In December 2023, in an interview with N12’s "Meet the Press" program, National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi stated, "If information about Sinwar's location is received and we know that he is surrounded by Israeli abductees, it will be a heartbreaking dilemma.” 

“It's a dilemma,” Hanegbi said at the time, “at the end of the day you have to make a decision.” 

In the past few days, reports indicated that Sinwar has apparently been out of touch and that his condition is unknown. Some believe Sinwar is laying low and using coded forms of communication to avoid detection. 

On Sunday evening, the Israeli military published a photo from IDF Chief-of-Staff Herzi Halevi's assessment meeting following the attack in Yemen, featuring a diagram of the Hamas leadership in the background.

At the top of the chart was Sinwar's name with a question mark above it. Several reports in Israeli media took that as a hint that Sinwar is not able to communicate with the other Hamas leaders. Last week, reports in Israel indicated that Sinwar might have been injured or killed in an Israeli strike during the war. 

The IDF later announced that tests on several bodies recovered from strikes conducted in recent weeks did not match Sinwar. Other reports claimed that the IDF did not believe that two recent statements purported to have been issued from Sinwar were, in fact, written by him. 

Following the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a Saudi news site claimed that Sinwar had changed his location to avoid being discovered.

There were previous reports that the Hamas leader could be hiding within the general Gaza population, dressed as a woman.