The mastermind of the October 7th invasion of Israel reportedly met with Israeli hostages in a terror tunnel, spoke with them in Hebrew.
Yahya Sinwar, chief of the Hamas terrorist organization’s operations in the Gaza Strip and mastermind of the October 7th invasion of Israel, reportedly met with Israelis taken captive during the invasion.
According to a report by Channel 12 which cited debriefings from recently released Israeli hostages, Sinwar met with Israelis taken captive to the Gaza Strip, as the were being held in underground terror tunnels.
Speaking in near-perfect Hebrew, the report said, Sinwar reassured the captives that they would be “protected.”
“Hello, I am Yahya Sinwar. You are the most protected here. Nothing will happen to you,” the senior terrorist was quoted as saying.
A separate report, published by Ha’aretz, said that Sinwar met with a group of hostages taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Convicted in 1989 of orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of two IDF soldiers and four Palestinian Arabs accused of working with Israel, Sinwar served more than twenty years of his four consecutive life terms, before he was released by the Netanyahu government as part of the deal to secure the return of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
Prison service officials have previously testified that Sinwar perfected his Hebrew during his incarceration, and worked to familiarize himself with Israelis and Israeli culture.
Six years after his release in the Shalit deal, Sinwar succeeded Ismail Haniyeh as chief of Hamas operations in Gaza when Haniyeh left the coastal enclave.