Israeli troops have come close to capturing Hamas’s Gaza-based leader in the enclave’s underground tunnel network, according to reports.

Yahya Sinwar pictured in 2021 holding up the child of a fighter from Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades who was killed in fighting with Israel -

Yahya Sinwar, identified by Israel as the mastermind of the Oct 7 atrocities, narrowly evaded capture by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, the security agency, “more than once” in recent weeks, Channel 12 reported, citing unnamed security officials.

The forces have zeroed in on areas of Gaza’s underground tunnel network where the Hamas leader is expected to be hiding, with the southern city of Khan Younis now the focus of the search.

Intelligence reports earlier in the war stated that Sinwar was moving from place to place and was not remaining in any one location for an extended period of time. Earlier this month, IDF troops surrounded his house in Khan Younis, where they believed he was hiding underground.

The Israeli military has reportedly faced questions as to why it has not yet eliminated Sinwar. Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, is understood to have urged caution, reminding the cabinet that it took the US 10 years to locate and kill Osama bin Laden.

Hostage release proposal

Heavy fighting was reported in the south and east of Khan Younis on Wednesday morning, and casualties were reported in an area west of it. In the north of Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health authorities said at least 46 people were killed and 110 injured.

Meanwhile, Israel is pursuing efforts to secure the release of hostages captured by Hamas and kidnapped into Gaza during the Oct 7 attack.

The day after the Mossad chief met with the CIA director and Qatar’s prime minister in Warsaw, the Israeli news website Walla quoted unnamed Israeli officials as saying they offered Hamas a one-week ceasefire in exchange for 40 hostages.

Hamas is believed to want a much longer pause as its own resources as well as the overall humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip are reaching breaking point.

The UN’s children’s agency warned on Wednesday that Gaza’s water and sanitation services were at the point of collapse

“Access to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death, and children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink,” Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, said, warning of a large-scale outbreak of waterborne diseases.

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday they were only interested in a lasting truce, otherwise Israel would get the hostages back and “start a new round of mass killings against our people”.

Earlier in the day, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, who lives in Doha, Qatar, arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials who mediated the previous ceasefire with Israel.

Mr Haniyeh rarely engages in public diplomacy and last visited Egypt in early November, before the announcement of the only truce in the war so far.

Hamas ‘rejects temporary pause’

A source briefed on the negotiations said envoys were discussing which of the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza could be freed, and what prisoners Israel might release in return.

Israel believes 129 hostages from the Oct 7 attack are still in Gaza, although 21 of them are dead. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, is facing rising domestic political pressure to secure the return of those in captivity.

It is thought Israel is insisting on the release of all remaining women and infirm men, while Palestinians convicted of serious offences could be on the list of prisoners to be freed in exchange.

But Palestinian officials indicated Hamas was likely to reject offers of a temporary pause and demand a permanent halt to fighting. “Hamas’s stance remains that they don’t have a desire for humanitarian pauses. Hamas wants a complete end to the Israeli war on Gaza,” an unnamed Palestinian official told Reuters.

“Haniyeh and Hamas always appreciate the Egyptian effort. He is in Cairo today to listen to whether Israel has made new proposals or whether Cairo has some too. It is early to speak of expectations.”

A senior Israeli official said the war could only end with the elimination of Hamas and the release of all hostages being held by the terror group and its affiliates.

Israeli forces uncovered a network of tunnels running deep beneath central Gaza City from properties registered to Yahya Sinwar and other senior Hamas organizers of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the military said on Wednesday.

The tunnels were found when soldiers secured a central area of the city in recent days, spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told reporters.

Accessed by spiral staircases and an elevator up to 20 meters (66 ft) below ground, the tunnels were kitted out with electricity, plumbing, surveillance cameras and heavy blast doors, according to images shared with reporters by the military.

"This complex, both above and below ground, was a centre of power for Hamas' military and political wings," Lerner said. Reuters could not independently verify the information provided.

The tunnels were used by senior Hamas officials including Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Muhammad Deif to direct operations and for "protected daily movement" through the heart of Gaza City, the military said in a statement.

Israeli accuses the militant group of deliberately locating tunnels and other military infrastructure among civilians whom it uses as human shields.

Hamas, which rejects the accusation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sinwar and Deif are believed to be the masterminds behind the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people and triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed around 20,000 people and forced most of the 2.3 million population to flee their homes.

Israel has the stated goal of destroying Hamas and rescuing more than 130 people still held hostage by the Palestinian Islamist militants.

Israel has yet to find the leaders despite taking control of some parts of Gaza. Israel's intense air and ground campaign has injured more than 50,000 people and laid waste to much of the coastal enclave.

Hamas has long boasted that its tunnel network is hundreds of kilometres (miles) long. Some shafts are to 80 metres deep and were described by one freed hostage as "a spider's web".

The group's tunnels beneath the sandy 360 sq km coastal strip and its borders include attack, smuggling, storage and operational burrows, Western and Middle East sources familiar with the matter have said.

Earlier this week, Israel said it uncovered an unusually large concrete and iron-girded tunnel designed to carry carloads of militant fighters from Gaza right up to the border.