Representatives of the headquarters of relatives of the abductees said that in an interview with them, Israeli intelligence officials confirmed to them reports that the Hamas leader in Gaza came out of the tunnels where he had been hiding since the beginning of the war and visited the streets of Gaza.

“Sinoir’s exit from the tunnels where the abductees are still being held is a demonstration of a total Israeli failure, regardless of whether Sinoir was able to remove or not,” the headquarters said in a statement. Israeli officials have not commented on the allegations of Yahya Sinuar’s appearance on the surface or his meetings with militants.

Earlier on Wednesday, an unnamed Hamas official said in an interview with al-Arabi al-Jadid that allegations that Hamas leader Yahya Sinoir is hiding in tunnels are “untrue” because Sinoir allegedly recently inspected areas where Hamas militants clashed with the Israeli army and talked with militants on the ground, not in tunnels.

According to a Hamas official, reports of a lack of communication between the group’s leaders in Gaza and abroad are also untrue: there were recent talks in which Sinoir briefed his colleagues on the progress of the fighting and the exact numbers of Hamas forces in different areas of the sector.