IDF releasing photos and a video showing the Hamas leader during his last moments alive and after his death backfired Israel slippin' It's not a smart move
Extracts: The video also raises questions about the way Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed
The IDF, Israel’s security services and its intelligence agency Shin Bet had been searching for Sinwar for over a year, getting help from the CIA Yet in the end, it was only by pure chance that a group of soldiers stumbled upon Sinwar and killed him
At first, they didn’t even know who it was they had killed – the video shows Sinwar wearing a face covering and military clothes It was only a day later when Israeli soldiers returned to the building to examine the scene that they realized it was Sinwar
Gil Siegal, a legal scholar and head of the Center for Medical Law, Bioethics and Health Policy at the Ono Academic College in Israel, said,
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‘Truth is in the eye of the beholder’ the fact that the video was used by both Israel and Hamas to make a point that suited their respective goals was not a surprise
“The truth is in the eye of the beholder. Objectively, the picture shows a person covered with dust, clearly injured, attempting to throw an object on a drone. This is the fact, the objective fact”
Siegal added, “Now let’s interpret this fact" 1. One would say: ‘oh, you see this person is fighting to his last gasp’ 2. The second would say: ‘you see, this is the Stone Age fighting the age of startups and technology’ 3. And the third will say: ‘you see, even at the last moment, this person remains violent and determined to cause damage’ 4. and so on”
Siegal said there were likely several reasons why the IDF released the materials publicly, including a desire to show that Sinwar was in fact dead. It’s proof 1. For example, people said that (Hamas’ military chief) Mohammed Deif is still alive 2. There were days of refutation following (the death of the Hezbollah leader) Hassan Nasrallah
To counter the portrayal of Sinwar as a brave martyr, the IDF has since released several videos and photos of him hiding in the tunnels underneath Gaza with his family, accompanied by claims about him living a comfortable life and prioritizing himself over his people
The IDF said the footage had been captured by a Hamas security camera on October 6 and October 10 last year and obtained by the IDF in recent days
Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, posted on X
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the IDF found huge sums of money, food and water in Sinwar’s hideouts
“He was hiding with his family in a luxurious tunnel while the children of Gaza were out in the open as a result of his crimes and brutality”
Posting a photo of Sinwar’s wife carrying a bag, Adraee suggested,
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the accessory was a luxury piece that cost tens of thousands of dollars - “While the people of Gaza do not have enough money for a tent or basic necessities, we see many examples of Yahya Sinwar and his wife’s special love for money”
Shira Efron, senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, said the release of photos and videos from the tunnels was likely an attempt at “course correction on the part of Israel”
Efron added,
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Israel’s narrative had long been that "Sinwar left the people of Gaza to suffer while he was sheltering underground, surrounding himself with the hostages taken from Israel as an insurance policy"
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“And then, all of a sudden what you see is this guy and not only is Sinwar not in the tunnel and not with hostages, he’s fighting heroically like the last soldier, right, wearing armor"
Sinwar looks thinner and even with his arm hanging, he lost an arm and he’s still fighting. This was not Israel’s intent”
Efron adding that the videos posted subsequently by the IDF are an attempt to reinforce their preferred narrative
It is a known fact backed by Western intelligence agencies that Hamas has built a vast network of underground tunnels in Gaza, using them to store weapons, to move around undetected and to shelter
The IDF said repeatedly that it believed Sinwar was moving around the tunnel network accompanied by hostages and said his DNA was found in a tunnel near where the bodies of six hostages who were killed by Hamas in late August were found
Hamas has already issued a statement rebutting the Israeli version of events, accusing the IDF of “blatant lies” and “a failed theatrical performance” in its portrayal of the last year of Sinwar’s life
The group said Sinwar was killed while “engaging in the battlefield” after having spent the past year “moving across various combat fronts in the Gaza Strip” adding that “Commander Sinwar and his brothers” had humiliated the Israeli army
Siegal said that there was likely another reason for the IDF releasing the video showing Sinwar all alone at the end
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“Those who lead a revolution, those who lead a military campaign, are usually surrounded by the people that support them, people that live for them, people that will do everything in their power to help him. And guess what? This person supposedly fighting for the Palestinian people, the people left him by himself He was all by himself”
