The hunt for the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Yahya Sinwar, continues. Yesterday we learned more about how that has been going, including one close call when it appears the IDF missed Sinwar by days.

Israeli commandos raided an elaborate tunnel complex in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 31 based on intelligence that Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, was hiding there, according to American and Israeli officials.

He had been, it turned out. But Mr. Sinwar had left the bunker beneath the city of Khan Younis just days earlier, leaving behind documents and stacks of Israeli shekels totaling about $1 million.

In the early days of the war Sinwar used cell phones and satellite phones to communicate. The US and Israel were able to intercept those and listen in to some of his calls, though they were not able to identify his precise location. More recently, Sinwar has completely stopped using any electronic communications. All of his communications are now carried by human messengers. Both the Israeli Shin Bet and the US intel agencies have teams dedicated to finding him.

Almost immediately after the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli military intelligence and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, established a cell inside Shin Bet headquarters with the singular mission of finding Mr. Sinwar.

The C.I.A. also set up a task force, and the Pentagon dispatched special operations troops to Israel to advise the Israel Defense Forces on the looming war in Gaza...

In particular, the Americans have deployed ground-penetrating radar to help map the hundreds of miles of tunnels they believe are under Gaza, with new imagery combined with Israeli intelligence gathered from captured Hamas fighters and troves of documents to build out a more complete picture of the tunnel network.

One senior Israeli official said American intelligence support had been “priceless.”

Finding and killing Sinwar is probably the quickest way to end this war. Recent reports have suggested that Sinwar's demands include Israel leaving and not returning to Gaza and also that his life be spared. But such an agreement would allow Sinwar to claim a victory of some kind for himself and for Hamas so Israel is understandably hesitant to agree to that. On the other hand, if Sinwar were killed, Israel would probably be willing to declare victory over Hamas and end the fighting.

So where is Sinwar now? Over the weekend, the UK Express published a story claiming that he routinely leaves the tunnels under Gaza dressed as a woman. This claim was attributed to unnamed Israeli intelligence sources.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been hiding among Palestinians “dressed as a woman” after abandoning Gaza’s terror tunnels, Israeli intelligence sources said last night...

“We have actually been minutes away more than once,” said Shalom Ben Hanan, who led three divisions of Israel’s security agency the Shin Bet, and is considered to be closely involved in the hunt for Sinwar.

“As we have discovered through other elimination operations, Sinwar will not be sitting in underground tunnels or special underground zones for more than 24 to 36 hours at a time. He knows we can find such underground locations through advanced technology. And he knows if a mistake is made or we find sources to tell us where he is, he needs to be on the move – to avoid that mistake becoming fatal for him.

The claim about Sinwar dressing as a woman has been repeated by lots of other news outlets at this point but it hasn't been confirmed on the record anywhere. Perhaps whoever said this was just guessing or maybe they are just making things up to make Sinwar look bad. Either way, it's best to take this with a grain of salt for now. 

Still it would be pretty amusing if Sinwar were captured above ground dressed in a Burqa. That would do wonders for his image.