The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, evades detection by Israeli authorities by forgoing the use of electronic devices throughout his 11 months of hiding, according to a Monday report by The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper claims the arch-terrorist has largely shunned phone calls, emails, texting, and other traceable communications that Israel’s clandestine services have used in the past to locate other wanted individuals.
Instead, Sinwar is reportedly relying on coded paper messages, transported by reliable couriers, to disseminate his wishes and correspond with subordinates in Gaza and other areas of the Middle East.
Ceasefire mediators cited by the news outlet said that a typical dispatch from Sinwar is usually handwritten and travels among several handlers following similar procedures he adopted while sending illicit correspondence when he was incarcerated as a security prisoner by the Jewish state.
Michael Milshtein, a former IDF military intelligence commander, told The Journal, “I’m quite sure this is one of the prominent reasons that the IDF didn’t find him,” while acknowledging Sinwar “keeps all his basic personal patterns of behavior very strict.”
Sinwar, who has not been seen in public since the start of the October 7 rampage in southern Israel, is believed to be operating in an underground location in Gaza.
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