The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, reportedly visited some of the hostages taken by the Palestinian Islamist movement during its raid on southern areas of the Israeli territory on October 7, Israeli television reported, citing a hostage who she was released yesterday Monday.

According to the testimony of the freed woman, whose identity has not been released, the visit took place in an underground tunnel in the first days after the attack, in which some 1,200 people died and another 240 were kidnapped, according to the figures of the Israeli authorities.

The visitor introduced himself to the hostages as Yahya Sinuar and spoke to them in Hebrew, according to her. “You are completely safe here, nothing will happen to you,” he allegedly told them, according to the hostage.

This information is impossible to independently verify, notes the German Agency.

Yahya Sinwar was convicted by an Israeli court in 1988 of attacks in which two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians were killed, allegedly as informers for Israeli intelligence services. He spent over two decades imprisoned in Israeli prisons, where he learned Hebrew.

In 2011 Yahya Sinwar was among more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

In 2017, he became the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.

After the October 7 attack, the deadliest by the Jewish state in 1948, Yahya Sinuar is at the top of the list of most wanted persons compiled by the Israeli authorities.