Inside the Tunnel Where Muhammad Sinwar Was Killed

By Patrick Kingsley*
Two feet wide and less than six feet tall, the tunnel led deep beneath a major hospital in southern Gaza.
The underground air bore the stench of what smelled like human remains. After walking some 40 yards along the tunnel, we found the likely cause.
In a tiny room that the tunnel led to, the floor was stained with blood. It was here, according to the Israeli military, that Muhammad Sinwar - one of Hamas's top commanders and the younger brother of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - was killed last month after a nearby barrage of Israeli strikes.
What we saw in that dark and narrow tunnel is one of the war's biggest Rorschach tests (psychological assessment tool that uses inkblots to evaluate a person's personality), the embodiment of a broader narrative battle between Israelis and Palestinians over how the conflict should be portrayed.
The military escorted a reporter from The New York Times to the tunnel on Sunday afternoon, as part of a brief and controlled visit for international journalists that the Israelis hoped would prove that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure as a shield for military activity.
To Palestinians, Israel's attack on, and subsequent capture of, the hospital compound highlighted its own disregard for civilian activity.
Body of Muhammad Sinwar
Last month, the military ordered the hospital's staff and patients to leave the compound, along with the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Then, officials said, they bored a huge hole, some 10 yards deep, in a courtyard within the hospital grounds.
Soldiers used that hole to gain access to the tunnel and retrieve Sinwar's body, and they later escorted journalists there so we could see what they called his final hiding place.
There are no known entrances to the tunnel within the hospital itself, so we lowered ourselves into the Israeli-made cavity using a rope.
To join this controlled tour, The Times agreed not to photograph most soldiers' faces or publish geographic details that would put them in immediate physical danger.
To the Israelis who brought us there, this hiding place - directly underneath the emergency department of the European Gaza Hospital - is emblematic of how Hamas has consistently endangered civilians, and broken international law, by directing its military operations from the cover of hospitals and schools.
Hamas has also dug tunnels underneath Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and a UN complex elsewhere in that city.
'We were dragged by Hamas to this point,' Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the chief Israeli military spokesman, said at the hospital on Sunday afternoon. 'If they weren't building their infrastructure under the hospitals, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't attack this hospital.'
Defrin said that Israel had tried to minimize damage to the hospital by striking the area around its buildings, without a direct hit on the medical facilities themselves. 'The aim was not to damage the hospital and, as much as we could, to avoid collateral damage,' he said.
Prioritize Destruction of Hamas
To the Palestinians who were forced from here, the Israeli attack on Sinwar embodied Israel's willingness to prioritize the destruction of Hamas over the protection of civilian life and infrastructure, particularly the health system.
According to the World Health Organization, Israel has conducted at least 686 attacks on health facilities in Gaza since the start of the war, damaging at least 33 of Gaza's 36 hospitals.
Many, like the European Gaza Hospital, are now out of service, fueling accusations from rights groups and foreign governments — strongly denied by the Israelis— that Israel is engaged in genocide, in part by wrecking the Palestinian health system.
'It's morally and legally unacceptable, but Israel thinks it is above the law,' Dr. Salah al-Hams, the hospital spokesman, said in a phone interview from another part of southern Gaza.
Though Israel targeted the periphery of the hospital site, leaving the hospital buildings standing, al-Hams said the strikes had wounded 10 people within the compound, damaged its water and sewage systems and dislodged part of its roof. It killed 23 people in buildings beyond its perimeter, he said, 17 more than were reported the day of the attack.
The tremors caused by the strikes were like an 'earthquake,' al-Hams said.
Al-Hams said he had been unaware of any tunnels beneath the hospital. Even if they were there, he said: 'This does not justify the attack. Israel should have found other ways to eliminate any wanted commander. There were a thousand other ways to do it.'
Piles of Rubble
Our journey to the hospital revealed much about the current dynamics of the war in Gaza.
In a roughly 20-minute ride from the Israeli border, we saw no Palestinians — the result of Israel's decision to order the residents of southern Gaza to abandon their homes and head west to the sea.
Many buildings were simply piles of rubble, destroyed either by Israeli strikes and demolitions or Hamas' booby-traps. Here and there, some buildings survived, more or less intact; on one balcony, someone had left a tidy line of potted cactuses.
We drove in open-top jeeps, a sign that across this swath of southeastern Gaza, the Israeli military no longer fears being ambushed by Hamas fighters.
Until at least the Salah al-Din highway, the territory's main north-south artery, the Israeli military seemed to be in complete command after the expansion of its ground campaign in March.
The European Gaza Hospital and the tunnel beneath it are among the places that now appear to be exclusively under Israeli control.
Under the laws of war, a medical facility is considered a protected site that can be attacked only in very rare cases. If one side uses the site for military purposes, that may make it a legitimate target, but only if the risk to civilians is proportional to the military advantage created by the attack.
The Israeli military said it had tried to limit harm to civilians by striking only around the edges of the hospital compound. But international legal experts said that any assessment of the strike's legality needed also to take into account its effect on the wider health system in southern Gaza.
In a territory where many hospitals are already not operational, experts said, it is harder to find legal justification for strikes that put the remaining hospitals out of service, even if militants hide beneath them.
Sinwar and 4 Fellow Militants
When we entered the tunnel on Sunday, we found it almost entirely intact. The crammed room where Sinwar and four fellow militants were said to have died was stained with blood, but its walls appeared undamaged.
The mattresses, clothes and bedsheets did not appear to have been dislodged by the explosions, and an Israeli rifle — stolen earlier in the war, the soldiers said — dangled from a hook in the corner.
It was not immediately clear how Sinwar was killed, and Defrin said he could not provide a definitive answer. He suggested that Sinwar and his allies may have suffocated in the aftermath of the strikes or been knocked over by a shock wave unleashed by explosions.
If Sinwar was intentionally poisoned by gases released by such explosions, it would raise legal questions, experts on international law said.
'It would be an unlawful use of a conventional bomb — a generally lawful weapon — if the intent is to kill with the asphyxiating gases released by that bomb,' said Sarah Harrison, a former lawyer at the US Defense Department and an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Defrin denied any such intent. 'This is something that I have to emphasize here, as a Jew first and then as a human being: We don't use gas as weapons,' he said.
In other tunnels discovered by the Israeli military, soldiers have used Palestinians as human shields, sending them on ahead to scour for traps.
The general denied the practice. The tunnel was excavated by Israelis, he said.
The New York Times

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Arab News

38 minutes ago

• Arab News

Gaza's starvation crisis fuels deadly race for survival

KHAN YOUNIS: Each day, Palestinians in Gaza run a deadly gauntlet in hopes of getting food. Israeli troops open barrages of gunfire toward crowds crossing military zones to get to the aid, they say, and knife-wielding thieves wait to ambush those who succeed. Palestinians say lawlessness is growing as they are forced into a competition to feed their families. A lucky few manage to secure some packets of lentils, a jar of Nutella, or a bag of flour. Many return empty-handed and must attempt the ordeal again the next day. 'This is not aid. It's humiliation. It's death,' said Jamil Atili, his face shining with sweat as he made his way back last week from a food center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed private contractor. He had suffered a knife cut across his cheek amid the scramble for food and said a contractor guard pepper-sprayed him in the face. Still, he emerged with nothing for his 13 family members. I have nothing to feed my children. My heart is broken. Jamil Atili, Gaza resident 'I have nothing to feed my children,' he said, nearly crying. 'My heart is broken.' Israel began allowing food into Gaza this past month after cutting it off completely for 10 weeks, though UN officials say it is not enough to stave off starvation. Most of the supplies go to GHF, which operates four food distribution points inside Israeli military zones. A trickle of aid goes to the UN and humanitarian groups. Both systems are mired in chaos. Daily gunfire by Israeli troops toward crowds on the roads heading to the GHF centers has killed several hundred people and wounded hundreds more in the past weeks, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. At the same time, in past weeks, hungry crowds have overwhelmed most of the UN's truck convoys and stripped away the supplies. Israeli troops have opened fire to disperse crowds waiting for trucks near military zones, witnesses say — and on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed, according to the ministry. 'I don't see how it can get any worse, because it is already apocalyptic. But somehow it does get worse,' said Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian affairs office. Thousands of people must walk miles to reach the GHF centers, three of which are in the far south outside the city of Rafah. Palestinians said the danger begins when the crowds enter the Israeli military zone encompassing Rafah. Mohammed Saqer, a father of three who risked the trip multiple times, said that when he went last week, tanks were firing over the heads of the crowds as drone announcements told everyone to move back. It's like it was "Squid Game,' Saqer said, referring to the dystopian thriller TV series in which contestants risk their lives to win a prize. Just raising your head might mean death, he said. He and others crawled forward, then left the main road. A shot rang out nearby, and they ducked, he said. They found a young man on the ground, shot in the back. The others assumed he was dead, but Saqer felt his chest — it was still warm, and he found a pulse. They carried him to a point where a car could pick him up. Saqer said he stood for a moment, traumatized by the scene. Then people shouted that the site had opened. The mad dash Everyone broke into a crazed run, he said. He saw several people wounded on the ground. One man, bleeding from his abdomen, reached out his hand, pleading for help. No one stopped. 'Everyone is just running to get to the aid, to get there first,' Saqer said. Omar Al-Hobi described the same scene four times when he went last week. Twice, he returned empty-handed; once, he managed to grab a pack of lentils. On the fourth day, he was determined to secure flour for his three children and pregnant wife. He said he and others inched their way forward under tank fire. He saw several people shot in the legs. One man fell bleeding to the ground, apparently dead, he said. Horrified, Al-Hobi froze, unable to move, 'but I remembered I have to feed my children.' He took cover in a greenhouse, then heard the announcement that the center was open and began to run. Avoiding thieves At the center, food boxes are stacked on the ground in an area surrounded by fences and earthen berms. Thousands rush in to grab what they can in a frantic melee. You have to move fast, Saqer said. Once supplies run out, some of those who came too late rob those leaving. He swiftly tore open a box and loaded the contents into a sack — juice, chickpeas, lentils, cheese, beans, flour and cooking oil. Then he took off running. There's only one route in and out of the center. But, knowing thieves waited outside, Saqer clambered over a berm, running the risk of being fired on by Israeli troops. 'It all depends on the soldiers' mood. If they are in a bad mood … they will shoot at me. If not, they will let me be,' he said. Heba Jouda said she saw a group of men beat up a boy of 12 or 13 years old and take his food as she left one of the Rafah centers. Another time, she said, thieves attacked an older man, who hugged his sack, weeping that his children had no food. They sliced his arm with a knife and ran off with the sack. Al-Hobi said he was trampled in the scramble for boxes. He managed to grab a bag of rice, a packet of macaroni. He snagged flour — but much of it was ruined in the chaos. At his family tent outside Khan Younis, his wife, Anwaar Saleh, said she will ration it all to make it last a week or so. 'We hope he doesn't have to go back. His life is the most important thing,' she said. Al-Hobi remains shaken — both by his brushes with death and the callousness that the race for food has instilled in everyone. 'No one will show you mercy these days. Everybody fends for themselves.'

Al Arabiya

2 hours ago

• Al Arabiya

Five army personnel killed in Israeli attack on Iran's west: Media

An Israeli attack on Saturday in Iran's west killed at least five army personnel and wounded nine others, Iranian media reported. 'Five army officers were killed and nine others were wounded in today's attack by the Israeli regime on the western city of Sumar' in Kermanshah province, the Fars news agency reported, quoting a provincial official.

Al Arabiya

3 hours ago

• Al Arabiya

Israel says Iran attempted to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday of trying to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus. In a post on X, Saar said the attack was thwarted, 'thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in cooperation with Israeli security services.' Saar gave no details about the nature of the attack. There was no immediate comment from Iran.