Hamas leader's wife ‘smuggled from Gaza tunnels to Turkey'
Samar Muhammad Abu Zamar, the wife of Yahya Sinwar, slipped out of the enclave using a fake passport and carrying significant amounts of cash, sources in Gaza told Ynet, an Israeli news website.
She married again a few months after Sinwar, Hamas's military commander, was killed by Israeli troops in October 2024, the news outlet reported.
Sources said her wedding and resettlement in Turkey were organised by Fathi Hammad, a Hamas political bureau member who has been linked to attempts to hide terror operatives and their families.
In 2024, footage was released showing Abu Zamar walking through a Hamas tunnel, clutching what appeared to be a designer handbag, hours before the October 7 attacks.
Although officially unconfirmed, the story has been widely reported in Israel.
Hamas, which styles itself as the primary force of Palestinian resistance to Israel, has repeatedly been accused of drawing strength from the suffering of ordinary Gazans who cannot leave the territory.
Ynet reported an Israeli security official as saying that both Abu Zamar and Najwa Sinwar, the wife of Mohammed Sinwar, who took command of Hamas after his brother was killed, left Gaza via Rafah.
'She's no longer here – she crossed through the Rafah border using a fake passport,' a source said of Abu Zamar, saying the escape required 'high-level coordination, logistical support, and large sums of money that regular Gazans don't have'.
The women are believed to have escaped via a smuggling network that Hamas has long had in place to evacuate its leaders' families.
The report comes amid increasing resentment from Palestinians towards Hamas after 19 months of war.
Pictures and videos showing senior members of the group living comfortable lifestyles elsewhere in the Middle East have also fuelled criticism.
One Gazan civilian said: 'They send their children to study in Turkey and Qatar—and send ours to the grave.
'What makes them different from any corrupt ruler in the Arab world?
'They only look after themselves.'
Hamas is now believed to be under the command of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the only senior commander from October 7 still alive.
Hostage negotiations are believed to have been hampered by difficulty in communicating with what is left of Hamas's military structure in the Strip.
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