Hamas's chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, exited the terrorist movement's tunnels and met with the movement's forces aboveground recently, a senior source in Hamas told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Wednesday.
Sinwar "recently inspected areas that witnessed clashes between the resistance and the occupation army, and met some of the movement's fighters on the ground and not in the tunnels," said the source.
The source claimed that Sinwar is "not isolated from reality" where he's hiding, adding that "talk that Sinwar is isolated in the tunnels is nothing but a claim on the part of Netanyahu and his agencies to cover up his failure to achieve the goals declared to the Israeli street and to his allies."
The Hamas source also denied reports that Hamas had changed its demands to only being willing to release 20 hostages instead of the 40 originally discussed in the first phase of any agreement. The source stated that while it's not possible to "accurately determine the number of living hostages," it is "certain" that the number is higher than the number being cited in some media reports.
The source claimed that Hamas has about 30 IDF and Shin Bet officers and that these hostages are being kept in "highly secured places, far from the hands of the occupation, and it is impossible to reach them under any circumstances."
Hostage families say they've found claims Sinwar emerged from tunnels are 'reliable'
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum announced in response to the report that intelligence sources had found that the report that Sinwar emerged from the tunnels under Gaza was "reliable."
"The picture of Sinwar in the streets of Gaza, while the hostages languish in basements, is the picture of Israeli failure," The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said.
Former Shin Bet officer downplays reports Sinwar exited tunnels
Micah Kobi, a former senior Shin Bet officer who interrogated Sinwar back when Sinwar was still in prison in Israel, told Maariv that "theoretically, there is a possibility that Sinwar is taking advantage of the IDF's shuffling and the withdrawal of most of the forces from the Strip, for his freer movement while commanding his fighters."
"Hamas' discourse in the media, and especially the report on Sinwar's exit from the tunnels, is nothing more than media spin," insisted Kobi. "They now know that the highest probability is that the IDF will enter Rafah, and therefore, through false information, they are trying to confuse us and divert us from our main goals there."
"Always before a military or political move, every time Israel declares a military intention, Hamas tries to cloud our view. Their media 'spins' are well known; this is Hamas' culture of lies that wants us to act contrary to our common sense. In the end, the research elements in the army know which statements should be given importance - and which statements are false," added the former Shin Bet officer.
Kobi also denied the Hamas source's claims about the number of hostages who are IDF and Shin Bet officers, saying that they are "not at all accurate and incorrect."