Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar urged his fighters to ‘take care’ of the remaining hostages in Gaza to use as leverage in his final instructions before his death, according to Palestinian media.
Writing scrawled on three pages of note paper was said to show Sinwar’s last directives for his men in Gaza, relaying orders to hold on to the hostages before setting them free as he considered them ‘our pressure card’, Al Quds reports.
The documents include an instruction to ‘take care of the lives of enemy prisoners and secure them, since they are the bargaining chip in our hands’, citing the Prophet Mohamed’s Hadith to ‘visit the sick, feed the hungry and relieve the suffering’.
‘Releasing our prisoners can only be accomplished by guarding enemy prisoners,’ the text continues. Other pages go on to record details of the hostages’ names, ages and military status, where applicable.
On a third page, the late Hamas political chief lists the names of 11 female prisoners with their ages and scattered details about their background.
Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar speaks during a press conference for Quds (Jerusalem) day in Gaza City on 30 May 2019
Sinwar pictured in tunnels under Gaza hours before the October 7 massacre
The first page of documents alleged to be the last will of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
The second page contains details on the hostages and scrawled sums
Al Quds published three pages they said had been left by Sinwar before he was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza on October 16.
It was not clear from the report whether more pages existed, but had not been published.
The documents open with a verse from the Quran, which states: ‘…and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom’.
The quote is an extract from a longer text, which reads: ‘If you encounter the disbelievers in a battle, strike-off their heads.
‘Take them as captives when they are defeated. Then you may set them free as a favor to them, with or without a ransom, when the battle is over. This is the Law.’
Sinwar follows the verse with the Prophet’s words: ‘Visit the sick, feed the hungry, and free the captive.’
‘The duty of releasing our prisoners can only be accomplished by guarding the enemy’s prisoners, and the reward for liberating the prisoners is recorded for the benefit of the mujahideen,’ Sinwar adds.
The 11 female hostages mentioned on the third page have since been released from captivity.
MailOnline could not verify the authenticity of the documents, which contradict ‘rumours’ repeated by Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin to The Telegraph that Sinwar had instructed fighters to ‘kill their hostages’ if he died.
Israel has not yet commented on the documents.
The third page lists 11 former hostages who have since been released
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar rose to the top of Hamas leadership over several decades
Israeli soldiers are pictured surrounding a corpse later identified as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, shown lying in a pile of rubble and with a fatal head wound and body injuries
Sinwar’s lair, discovered by Israeli soldiers in the Tel al-Sultan area, was well-resourced, with food, water and other supplies to help him survive for months underground
These are the disquieting images that show Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was callously hiding out in relative comfort from his underground lair as he ordered his terror group to carry out the bloodiest massacre Israel has ever endured
Israeli tanks drive in an area near Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip on October 6
Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 27
A displaced Palestinian child who fled the northern Gaza Strip carries a bowl of food in front of a newly set up tents at the Yarmouk Sports Stadium in Gaza City on October 25
A view of Qasr al-Basha, a historic building in the Old City, which was damaged by Israeli attacks and housed a museum before the attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on October 23
Sinwar was killed last Wednesday in an Israeli strike in the Palestinian enclave, the IDF confirmed after an extensive study of dental records.
His death was viewed as a symbolic victory for Israel, which has specified war objectives of ousting Hamas and returning the remaining hostages trapped in Gaza.
But experts have warned that Sinwar’s death could complicate negotiations, with Sinwar taking a leading role in talks through intermediaries.
Dr Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor of Defence Studies at King’s College London, said it would be ‘very difficult to strike a deal within Hamas now to get the hostages back’ – and that continued resistance fighting could descend into a ‘sort of protracted, atrocious conflict in Gaza’ unlikely to end soon.
‘What we’re likely going to see is that different cells across Gaza will likely continue to resist. And that’s also where hostages are being held,’ he warned
‘The key issue will be for the mediators – for Egypt, for Qatar – to actually speak to someone. Haniyeh was a very important interlocutor. Sinwar was the interlocutor afterwards. He’s now been killed… So we have a bit of a leadership vacuum.
‘That will make negotiation extremely difficult and will make it very difficult to move forward in terms of achieving the war aims, which was getting the hostages back.’
While Israel is expected to now refocus on its burgeoning conflict with Iran, and its continued operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, strikes have continued in Gaza.
Palestinian officials reported today that Israeli strikes across the Strip have killed at least 72 people since Thursday night, and said Israeli forces had launched a night-time raid on a hospital in the north.
The Gaza health ministry said a strike on houses in the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least 38, many of them women and children.
The Israeli military said its forces had killed a number of Palestinian gunmen in air and ground strikes in the southern Gaza Strip and dismantled military infrastructure.
A view of the destruction as a result of the Israeli army’s attack on Khan Younis city, October 25
Palestinians return their homes with the withdrawal of Israeli army in Khan Yunis on Friday
A Palestinian girl carries a freshly baked loaf of bread at a make-shift camp for the internally displaced in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 17
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, the local health authority reports
In northern Gaza, where an area around the town of Jabalia has been the target of a weeks-long offensive, health officials said Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities struggling to operate there, and stationed forces outside it.
‘The terrorising of civilians, the injured and children began as they (the Israeli army) started opening fire on the hospital,’ Eid Sabbah, the hospital’s director of nursing, said in a voice note to Reuters.
When the army retreated, a delegation from the World Health Organisation arrived with an ambulance and evacuated some patients. The WHO confirmed it had transferred 49 patients and caregivers to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
‘We saw mayhem and chaos… The emergency wards (in Kamal Adwan) were overflowing, and we saw numerous patients being brought in and horrific trauma patients, completely overwhelming the staff,’ Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory said in an update on the operation.
The Israeli military said it was operating in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital based on intelligence ‘regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure’ there.
Medics at three hospitals have refused Israeli orders to evacuate and leave patients unattended. They said at least 800 Palestinians had been killed in northern Gaza since the army began the new offensive three weeks ago.
Some residents of Khan Younis sifted through rubble on Friday in an attempt to retrieve clothes and documents, while children looked for their toys.
Ahmed Sobh recounted how his cousin had screamed ‘Help me, help me’.
‘We ran and found her children, a boy and a girl, martyred. Her son was lying under the concrete column, it took us 1.5 hours to get him out,’ he told Reuters.
Ahmed al-Farra described digging relatives including his mother from the rubble, adding he had lost 15 members of his extended family during the airstrikes.
