Tel Aviv, Feb 14 (IANS): The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said that their intelligence agencies were closing in on the Hamas terror leader, Yahya Sinwar and would catch him dead or alive.

This was announced by the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in a press statement on Tuesday night.

The IDF spokesperson said that the Military intelligence and other Israeli intelligence agencies were getting valuable inputs about the exact location of the Hamas leader, widely believed to be the mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

Meanwhile, the IDF has also said that it had obtained certain visuals of Sinwar along with one of his wives and children living in a network of tunnels. However, the said footage that it got was obtained during a recent raid conducted by the Israeli troops in a tunnel network under a cemetery in the Bani Suheila area, Khan Younis which is the birthplace of Sinwar.

The IDF spokesperson also said that the Israeli troops have captured close relatives of many senior Hamas leaders and that these people who are in Israel custody were revealing important information about the Hamas networks and whereabouts of its leaders in hiding. It is to be noted that the IDF had in a recent raid at Rafah in the Egyptian border rescued two of the hostages who were in the custody of Hamas.

Daniel Hagari said that among those who are in the custody of the IDF include the father of Hamas Rafah area commander, Salemah as also the son of Husni Hamdan, another senior leader.

The IDF spokesperson also said that they have a few close relatives of Sinwar in their custody but didn’t name them.

The IDF is in the meantime conducting raids and surveillance in several pockets of Rafah border where the intelligence has reported the presence of a large number of Hamas militants living among the civilian population, including women and children.

Israeli intelligence, including Mossad and Shin Bet, has also provided inputs on Hamas men mixing among the population to save themselves from being hit.