The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this evening that the leader of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, met with some Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip in person.

The newspaper added that Sinwar spoke to the Israeli prisoners inside the tunnels in Hebrew and told them, "You are in a safe place."

The Hebrew Channel 12 commented on the incident as “the most wonderful story in the war so far... Sinwar again.”

Channel correspondent Amit Sehgal said, “We have heard many unbelievable stories, but this is the most amazing of all. When I heard it, my jaw dropped.”

According to the channel: “One of the liberated Israeli female prisoners, who returned to her family in the last days from the Gaza Strip, narrated an incident that occurred in the first days of captivity, that is, the first days of the war, where she and the other Israeli prisoners were detained in a tunnel when they felt that something was happening and then the door was opened.”

The channel quoted the Israeli prisoner released in an exchange deal: “A bearded man stands at the door and speaks to them in excellent Hebrew without an accent. His name is: Yahya Al-Sinwar.”

She added: “The man who personally ordered the events of October 7 wants to know the condition of the Israeli prisoners, so he looks at them in the tunnel and says to them in Hebrew: “Welcome, I am Yahya Sinwar, and you are here safe and nothing will happen to you.”

She pointed out that the security officials supervising the investigation into the case of those released had verified the veracity of the story.