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U.S. Intelligence Agencies Collaborating with Israel in Search for Hamas Leader Hiding in Gaza

(Washington Post) Shane Harris - The Israeli military is confident that Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, is hiding inside tunnels beneath Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, surrounded by a human shield of hostages. U.S. officials said they concur with the Israeli assessment. Israeli soldiers working inside the tunnels have retrieved information left behind by Hamas fighters that has helped to better understand the underground system. They have discovered Hamas administrative files, computers and phone directories. They also discovered evidence that Sinwar may have been one step ahead of them. According to Israeli press reports, soldiers have found Sinwar's clothes, notes that he wrote by hand, and even a toothbrush he may have used. U.S. intelligence analysts are helping with some of the tunnel mapping, contributing powerful analytic technologies that fuse fragments of information. Closing off the massive tunnel network takes significant time and explosives. Israeli forces have looked for nodes that, once destroyed, can render other passages running off them effectively inoperative. U.S. intelligence agencies have also assisted in the analysis of intercepted communications and data from recovered computer hard drives as well as information from interrogations. There are no U.S. intelligence personnel on the ground in Gaza, and the Americans are not assisting Israel in the day-to-day effort of locating Hamas fighters, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
2024-02-27 00:00:00
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