Gaza, 14 February 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The Israeli military has said it has discovered an abandoned hideout of the head of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yehya al-Sinwar.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday evening that al-Sinwar was staying in an underground compound in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

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"We reached a compound where [al-Sinwar] was staying underground with other senior operatives, hiding while the war is happening above them," Hagari said in a briefing.

"The senior Hamas operatives are staying in the compound in good conditions. They have food and bathrooms, alongside safes with personal fortunes amounting to millions of NIS and dollars."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also released a brief video showing the suspected hideout.

The details of the video could not initially be independently verified.

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The IDF said that a video from a Hamas security camera installed in underground tunnels in Khan Younis showed al-Sinwar "fleeing with his children and one of his wives through the tunnel network, led by his brother, Ibrahim Sinwar."

Earlier in February, family members from the inner circle of the senior military leadership of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and from al-Sinwar's closer circle were arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities, Hagari said.

Among them was al-Sinwar's father Rafa Salama.

The interrogations of those arrested provided Israel's security services with important information, Hagari said.

Photo: X - screenshot