From Underground… How Does Yahya Sinwar Communicate with Hamas Leaders Inside and Outside Gaza?
With his election as the leader of Hamas, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh, many are wondering how Yahya Sinwar manages to communicate with his comrades from his underground hideout.
Before Haniyeh‘s assassination at the end of last month, media reports indicated that Hamas‘ leadership in Gaza, represented by Sinwar, was discussing every proposal or deal and had the final say regarding negotiations through secret discussions aimed at preventing any information leaks.
Israel believes that Yahya Sinwar has been hiding since the outbreak of war on October 7th, in a vast network of tunnels that extend deep beneath the cities and refugee camps of the Gaza Strip.
It is said that Sinwar no longer trusts electronic communications, fearing that the Israeli army could discover his location and kill him.
Instead, he passes verbal remarks and messages to trusted individuals who then relay them to Hamas leaders.
Special Communication Lines
However, the newspaper “Asharq Al-Awsat” addressed other means used by Hamas leaders, noting that they rely on special communication protocols primarily to connect with entities abroad.
This is due, according to the report, to the almost constant disruption of telephone and internet lines in Gaza, and also to avoid being tracked by Israeli intelligence.
According to the source, Hamas leaders initially relied on the movement’s communication lines, which were developed by Hamas’ military engineers as early as 2009, and they continued to improve them sporadically, using primarily foreign technology.
The newspaper cites unnamed sources, stating that Hamas‘ military wing installed underground telephone centers connected to old communication lines at certain points above ground, and these sites “were periodically inspected to prevent infiltration.”
In February, when the Israeli army captured a tunnel, it immediately released footage it claimed was from Sinwar’s room, showing showers, a desk filled with dollars and shekels (Israeli currency) wrapped in aluminum foil.
The army also released a video believed to show Sinwar, his wife, and their children hurrying through a tunnel.
According to sources cited by “Asharq Al-Awsat,” each leader had their own “contact point” through which emergency communications were conducted.
The sources indicate that Israel was aware of this system and attempted to hack it several times. Sometimes, airstrikes were directed at these points.
However, it appears that Hamas continued to use this method of communication at the beginning of the current war, despite the Israeli army‘s focus on destroying part of these communication systems, along with the underground tunnels that it claims contain significant communication infrastructure.
But how do messages reach the outside?
Regarding ceasefire negotiations with Israel, a member of the movement has been tasked with delivering responses from Gaza to the outside.
Ceasefire talks inside the Gaza Strip are conducted “using internal communication systems, and their outcomes are then transmitted to the outside through various means, including via the internet connected to SIM cards, and using encrypted software purchased from abroad.”
Since the start of the war on October 7th, Israel has been trying to trace Sinwar’s whereabouts, but to no avail.
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From Shifa Hospital to Khan Younis to Rafah… No Trace of Sinwar
At the beginning of the war, Israeli authorities believed that Sinwar was at Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
However, after searching it, the Israeli army claimed that Sinwar had moved to Khan Younis, his hometown in the southern Gaza Strip.
But after the Israeli military operation in Khan Younis, the army stated that the Hamas leader had relocated to Rafah, a neighboring city.
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Three months after the military operation in Rafah, the Israeli army has found no trace of Sinwar, except for a recent statement from an officer who claimed that Israeli forces were just meters away from him and that his coffee was still hot, without specifying the place or date of the incident.
How Sinwar communicates with the outside world from the tunnels, where Tel Aviv believes he is, remains a mystery to Israeli security and intelligence services, including Shin Bet, Mossad, and Aman, the military intelligence division.
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In Israel, it is believed that Sinwar never uses a mobile phone as they can be easily tracked by Israeli intelligence, or even by Western intelligence monitoring the Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli estimates, Sinwar communicates with a limited number of trusted individuals and through a disconnected chain, so that if one member of the chain is captured, it would be impossible to trace him back.
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This is why Israeli negotiators say that transmitting messages from a Hamas delegation to Sinwar in indirect negotiations and awaiting his responses takes a long time.
Israel is trying to gather information through media leaks to discover how Sinwar communicates with the world, aiming to locate and assassinate or capture him.
