The widow of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar escaped Gaza with the couple’s children using a forged passport and is now living in Turkey, where she has since remarried, the Ynet outlet reported on Wednesday, citing Palestinian sources with knowledge of the details.
Samar Muhammad Abu Zamar left via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, the unnamed Gazan source said.
“That required logistical support, cooperation at a high level, and a lot of cash that the average Gaza resident doesn’t have,” the source said, noting that Abu Zamar used the passport of another Gazan woman.
Abu Zamar’s remarriage in Turkey was set up by Fathi Hammad, a senior official in the Hamas politburo. According to the report, Hammad has in the past been identified as smuggling Hamas members and their families out of Gaza.
Other sources told Ynet that Hamas long ago established a system to smuggle the families of senior members out of the Strip, including fake passports, fictitious medical records, and assistance from the embassies of supporting countries.
Najwa, the widow of Sinwar’s brother, Muhammad, who took over the terror group after the IDF killed Yahya, also left Gaza using the same system, and most likely headed to Turkey, the source said. There has been no sign of her since her husband’s death, the report noted.
An Israeli security source confirmed to the outlet that both women left via Rafah before their husbands were killed.
In October 2024, days after it killed Yahya Sinwar, the IDF released video footage that it said showed the terror chief heading with his family and extensive supplies into a tunnel complex below his home in Khan Younis on the night before the October 7, 2023, onslaught he orchestrated.
At the time, the IDF said that Abu Zamar was seen clutching a Hermès Birkin handbag valued at $32,000; however, it was reportedly unclear if the bag was authentic or a knock-off.
In contrast to the Sinwar widows, a video has
circulated online of Umm Khaled, the widow of slain Hamas commander Muhammad Deif, in a simple home with her three children, as opposed to a tunnel, bunker or elaborate house. In the video, she says that the four sleep on mattresses on a mat, and stresses that that was the arrangement before the war as well, according to the report.
“I am not running away, I am here with my people,” she said.
According to Ynet, some see the video as an attempt to counter the idea that Hamas leaders bolted Gaza.
A Gazan who asked not to be named told the outlet that Hamas leaders “are sending their children to study in Turkey and Qatar and our children to the grave. They look out only for themselves.”