Hamas’ Sinwar to Israeli Captives: You Are the Most Protected Here

Yahya Sinwar, the chief of Hamas Palestinian resistance movement reportedly spoke to Israeli captives as they were being held underground inside Gaza, according to Israeli media.

Sinwar, spoke to the hostages in near-accentless Hebrew in a bid to reassure them after they were dragged into Gaza on October 7, Channel 12 news reported, citing information from a recently released hostage.

The meeting took place “in a tunnel,” the channel alleged, shortly after Operation AL-Aqsa Flood on October 7th.

“Hello, I am Yahya Sinwar. You are the most protected here. Nothing will happen to you,” Sinwar told the group, according to the report.

A hostage who was present recounted the incident to family and also briefed security officials, “who confirmed the story,” Channel 12 said.

According to an unsourced report in Haaretz Monday, the hostages who heard Sinwar were all from Nir Oz, a kibbutz in the Gaza envelope settlements.

The resistance leader, who is reportedly believed to have planned and authorized the October 7 operation, learned Hebrew in Israeli prison between 1989 and 2011, when he was released as part of the deal to return captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Earlier in November, Bloomberg American TV Network described Sinwar as the Hamas chief “who deceived Israel,” and “wanted Israel to believe that Hamas was concentrating on stability in Gaza” rather than fighting.

Last year, a former warden of Israeli Hasharon Prison and head of the Israel Prison Service’s Intelligence Department Betty Lahat told the Maariv newspaper that Sinwar used his time in jail to learn as much as he could about Israelis.

“He’s a very intelligent person who invested in his intellectual development and in an in-depth understanding of Israeli society,” she said.