On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu said Israeli troops had surrounded the house of Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct 7 terror attack, in the main southern city of Khan Younis.
“[On Tuesday night] I said our forces can reach anywhere in the Gaza strip. Now they are surrounding Sinwar’s house. His house is not his fortress…. but it’s only a matter of time until we get him,” Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday during a meeting with the head of the Red Cross.
‘Our job is to kill Sinwar’
Responding to Mr Netanyahu’s remarks, Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s chief spokesperson, said Sinwar was underground.
“I won’t elaborate on where exactly and what we know. Our job is to get to Sinwar and kill him.”
The IDF destroyed Sinwar’s house in the last bout of fighting in 2021, with the Hamas leader later posing for photos sitting on an armchair in the rubble.
It came as Israeli forces were fighting door-to-door in Khan Younis, with the army claiming it had struck 250 targets in the Strip over the past 24 hours.
Troops found one of the largest ever weapons caches in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
Hundreds of RPGs and dozens of anti-tank missiles were found in a depot near a health clinic and a school, a statement read.
Footage was released of soldiers from the 460th Armored Brigade and Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion carrying giant rockets on their shoulders on to waiting trucks.
At a news conference, Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, said: “Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter, deepening horror”. More than 16,000 have been killed since the war began, according to the Hamas-run health authorities.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, said Israel wanted the war to end, but added “it can only end in a way that ensures that Hamas can never attack our people again”.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
