Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar’s Secret Plan to Smuggle Israeli Hostages Into Iran

ANALYSIS by Elon Perry

Sinwar planned to escape Gaza himself while smuggling hostages out through the Philadelphi corridor, intelligence sources said.

During a 15-minute press conference for the foreign media in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu astounded the audience by claiming that Hamas was planning to smuggle hostages out of Gaza using the much-disputed Philadelphi corridor.

“If we leave the Philadelphi corridor, it will be impossible to prevent Hamas not only from smuggling weapons, but also from smuggling hostages,” he said. 

What was the background to this claim? Intelligence sources have told the JC that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s plan was to smuggle himself and the remaining Hamas leaders along with Israeli hostages through the Philadelphi corridor to Sinai and from there to Iran.

This was reportedly revealed during the interrogation of a captured senior Hamas official, as well as by information obtained from documents seized on Thursday, August 29, the day the six bodies of the murdered hostages were retrieved.

READ MORE: How Israel Recruits Informants Inside Gaza

Hamas has been insisting for months on taking control of the corridor while Israel has strongly resisted. This is why no deal or compromise has been agreed in the last eight months, despite the efforts of the US, Egypt, and Qatar.

Sinwar has most likely come to realise that the war was over as far as his organisation was concerned and that his chances of achieving military success were nil, despite his success in international propaganda.

Sinwar sees only one way out – to save his own life by abandoning the battlefield and fleeing Gaza. He has not insisted on the withdrawal of IDF forces from the Netzerim crossing, as there is no possibility of smuggling or escaping from Gaza through this crossing.

IDF soldiers explore a Hamas terrorist tunnel in Gaza. IDF photo.

To Sinwar, the Philadelphi corridor has turned out to be the only option available to fulfill his plan, which is defined by Israeli security officials as cowardly. However, the Israelis are not even considering withdrawing from the Philadelphi, something that Netanyahu calls taboo – even at the price of no deal or further dead hostages.

Another reason for Israel’s insistence on controlling the Philadelphi is the recent tragedy in which six hostages were cold-bloodedly murdered. Within both the Security Cabinet and the army, it is assumed that giving in to Sinwar’s demand for Philadelphi would be seen as weakness and a message to Hamas that killing hostages is profitable, and that such a concession would lead to further demands and more concessions, strengthening Hamas and endangering Israel’s security.

In a stormy meeting held in Israel last week to discuss the tragedy of the murder of the six abductees, most members of the Cabinet agreed that a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphi corridor, could reinstate Hamas rule, which has proven over the last decade that its focus is not on peace but on the elimination of Israel. Netanyahu informed President Biden of this in a classified internal document back on May 27 and again on August 16, when he responded to Hamas’s demands during the failed negotiations. These turned out to be a waste of time because Sinwar had decided in advance not to agree to any deal or compromise if he did not get full control of the Philadelphi corridor.

The Philadelphi corridor was established on the completion of Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, following the peace agreement with Egypt. It is a 14 km two-lane road running across the southern edge of the Gaza Strip from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, between Rafah in the Gaza Strip and Sinai in Egypt.

SEE Elon Perry’s new book, Children in War: A First-Hand Account of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

It is understood that since the war began, Netanyahu has felt that he had made several mistakes concerning Hamas.

• He trusted Hamas to deliver the ceasefire promised during the negotiations in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, during which Netanyahu agreed to release 1,027 terrorist prisoners, including Sinwar, and 280 other murderers sentenced to life imprisonment. Netanyahu felt remorse about Sinwar’s release, which was agreed to despite warnings from Israeli intelligence officials about Sinwar’s ambitions to take revenge on Israel and strengthen Hamas, and lead it into a tougher and more brutal approach.

• Netanyahu also felt remorse for approving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Hamas, delivered in suitcases every month. Netanyahu believed in Ismail Haniyeh who assured him that these funds would be used to support the needy in Gaza, in the construction of schools and hospitals.

• But what has most disturbed his conscience on this issue was his refusal to approve the killing of Sinwar and Muhammad Deif, even though the Shin Bet and the Mossad provided him with not only their exact location, but also presented an ingenious plan of action without leaving any Israeli fingerprints.

Furthermore, in the last ten years, Shin Bet and Mossad recommended to Netanyahu and the members of the Security Cabinet a sophisticated operation combining skilled forces to eliminate not only Sinwar and Deif, but the entire top level of Hamas leadership, to be carried out at different times and at different occasions. However, their recommendations were not accepted, Netanyahu preferring to continue oiling Hamas. He even stated in one media interview, without blinking an eye, that Hamas had to be strengthened in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, which has failed to control the chaos both in Gaza and in the West Bank.

Netanyahu believed that only Hamas would be able to maintain peace in Gaza and the West Bank, where it has a strong influence on most of the inhabitants. It is understood that Netanyahu believed with all his heart that the exhausted Hamas had long ago given up on the destruction of Israel, and that it was now striving to reach an agreement with Israel, even leading to some type of diplomatic relationship in the future for the restoration of Gaza and the West Bank.

IDF photo.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has stated that the relinquishing of Philadelphi is possible for a period of 42 days, during which the first phase of the deal would be carried out, that is, the release of 33 hostages and Israel’s withdrawal from the Philadelphi. But the Prime Minister claims that if Israel leaves the corridor, it will not be able to return again in the light of the political pressures that would be exerted.

Netanyahu argues that the corridor is the “oxygen pipe of Hamas” that has enabled its strengthening over the years. Egypt, which was supposed to monitor the corridor to prevent smuggling, failed due to the corrupt Egyptian officers who were assigned to guard the corridor. It was discovered that they were in receipt of large sums of bribery money from Hamas.

Netanyahu insists that only an Israeli presence in the Philadelphi corridor will prevent the terrorist organisation from renewing its power. This position is also supported by ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who are also calling for the return of the settlements in the Gaza Strip and for continued Israeli control there following the war. The Biden administration has made it clear that it opposes this, and will not support an Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip after the war is over.

And in the midst of this, while the debate is going on inside and outside Israel, the fate of the hostages will continue to depend on the mercy of the terrorists who hold them.

– First published in the Jewish Chronicle.

Elon Perry is a journalist and former commando in the Golani Brigade of the IDF. See his new book, Children in War: A First-Hand Account of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.