Last January, Israeli commandos raided a tunnel complex built under Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip to capture Yahya Sinwar, who had fled the area only days earlier, leaving behind documents and nearly a million Israeli shekels, the New York Times reported.

The alleged architect of the al-Aqsa Flood operation of Oct. 7, Sinwar was recently tapped as the new leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran and is the subject of a "complex" and "frustrating" hunt by Israeli and American services, which the newspaper returns to in great detail in an article published this Monday.

Elusive until now, the leader never appears in public and uses a network of human couriers to communicate with other members of Hamas, notably those in charge of negotiations with Israel, according to the Israeli security officials interviewed. An opaque communication system that they compare to that used by Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, before his killing during a raid on his complex in 2011 in Pakistan.

Special cells

Since the start of the Gaza war that broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has set up a special cell within the Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence agency, dedicated to this hunt. The Americans provide logistical and information-sharing assistance deemed "invaluable" by an Israeli official. A partnership that often proves unbalanced, according to its American counterparts – the latter believing that they share more information than they receive in return.

During the early weeks of the conflict, Israeli intelligence believed their target was hiding in a maze of tunnels beneath Gaza. In a raid, Israeli soldiers found a recent video showing the current Hamas leader moving his family to another shelter beneath the city. He kept his family with him for several months, still using cell phones and satellite networks at the time. Intelligence was able to pick up some of his conversations, but without pinpointing his precise location, the Times reported. In November, a freed Israeli hostage described to the newspaper how Sinwar, speaking in Hebrew, assured Israeli captives that they would not be mistreated.

The situation has made cease-fire negotiations even more complex. Diplomats in Doha, Qatar, say Hamas officials are stressing the importance of consulting their leader on any crucial decision, and that his death or capture would have a significant impact on the war. Some U.S. officials also believe that while such a move would allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to claim a decisive victory, it could also complicate talks on the release of the hostages, with Sinwar’s successors potentially less inclined to negotiate with Israel. Still, both countries continue the hunt, hoping that a capture could change the course of the conflict.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.