Secret documents appear to show killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s last written orders, which include instructions on what to do with Israeli hostages.
The three pages of handwritten notes were published by Palestinian paper Al-Quds, which claim they are the final “wills” and “directives” of Sinwar, who was killed in an Israeli strike last week.
Scribbled hastily in blue ink, the first page includes an instruction to the captors of the hostages to “take care of the lives of enemy prisoners and secure them, since they are the bargaining chip in our hands”.
Guarding “the enemy’s prisoners”, the writer stressed, is essential to securing the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Those that carry out their “duty” will be rewarded, it read.
At the time of Sinwar’s death, 101 Israeli hostages were being held captive in the enclave, at least 60 of whom were thought to be alive.
The second page of notebook paper, written under the header Alarqam Trading for Printer Co, a Dubai-registered printed company, included tallies of hostages and their locations.
It mentioned 112 unnamed hostages held in three areas, Gaza City (14), the centre of the Gaza Strip (25), Rafah (51). The fourth group of 22 hostages has no location.
Names, ages and genders are detailed as well as whether they were soldiers, civilians, young or old. There were also calculations showing that Sinwar may have been working out how many hostages were left in each location.
The last page showed the names of 11 female hostages who were released earlier in the war, most of them in the week-long November ceasefire. It listed whether they held foreign citizenship.
There has not yet been an official comment from Israel on the documents attributed to Sinwar.
Hamas released 105 civilians during the November hostage-prisoner swap, adding to the four released before that. Eight hostages have since been rescued alive, while the bodies of 37 have been recovered.
On Thursday, the Hostages Families Forum called on Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Hamas to secure an agreement for the release of the captives.
“We demand the Israeli prime minister grant the negotiating team full authority to secure this deal. Time is running out for the hostages,” they said in a statement.
Their plea came after Israel announced it would be sending officials to Doha on Sunday for new truce talks, the first of their kind since August.
It is not clear whether Hamas has agreed to participate but a delegation of leaders of the terror group met with Egyptian security officials on Thursday in Cairo to discuss “ideas and proposals”, a senior Hamas official told AFP.
Washington believes the killing of Sinwar might draw Hamas back to the negotiation table, particularly if the decision-making will now be led by the remaining leaders abroad which could help expedite the long-stalled ceasefire talks.
“With Sinwar gone there is a real opportunity to bring home [the hostages] and to accomplish the objective,” Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said this week on his 11th trip to the Middle East since the start of the conflict.
Hamas is now believed to be engaged in talks to select the group’s new leader, with speculation that Sinwar’s younger brother Muhammed could take control.
