As the war in Gaza grinds on and the humanitarian crisis deepens, new reports that families of senior Hamas leaders quietly fled the territory in the early days of the conflict are fueling growing resentment among Gaza’s civilian population.

According to multiple local sources cited by Israeli outlet Ynet, the widow of slain Hamas military chief Yahya Sinwar, Samr Abu Zamer, escaped Gaza using a fake passport, large sums of cash, and foreign assistance. She is reportedly now living in Turkey and has since remarried.

The report suggests that Hamas leadership may have used a covert smuggling network to evacuate their families at the outset of the war, leaving ordinary Gazans to face the full brunt of Israeli airstrikes, displacement, and economic collapse.

“She’s no longer here—she crossed through the Rafah border using a fake passport,” one Gazan source told Ynet, adding that the operation involved “high-level coordination, logistical support, and large sums of money that regular Gazans don’t have.” Abu Zamer’s reported remarriage in Turkey was allegedly arranged by senior Hamas political bureau member Fathi Hammad, a figure long associated with facilitating the escape of Hamas officials and their relatives.

In January, the IDF released footage showing Abu Zamer entering a Hamas tunnel with her children, sparking speculation that she was hiding underground. Subsequent reports, however, indicated she had already left Gaza entirely, likely bound for Turkey. The claims remain unverified, and neither Hamas nor Turkish authorities have commented publicly on her status.

The video of Abu Zamer entering the tunnel showed her carrying a luxury Hermès Birkin handbag—an image that encapsulated the growing divide between Hamas’s leaders and the civilians they claim to represent.

Similar questions surround the whereabouts of Najwa Sinwar, the wife of Yahya Sinwar’s brother, Muhammad, who was also killed by Israeli forces. Local sources believe she, too, fled Gaza with her children before her husband’s death. Israeli security officials say both women exited through the Rafah crossing, though the exact timeline remains unclear.

Hamas has long been suspected of maintaining a clandestine evacuation network involving forged passports, fake medical documents, and diplomatic coordination with sympathetic countries. These allegations, while difficult to independently verify, have gained renewed attention amid the widening gap between Hamas’s leadership and the besieged population it governs.

Still, not all Hamas family members appear to have fled. A recent video of Umm Khaled, wife of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, shows her sitting in a sparsely furnished home with her three children. “There are four mattresses and a mat in our house. That’s how it was before the war, and after,” she says in the video. “I’m not fleeing. I’m here with my people.”

Some analysts interpret the video as an attempt by Hamas to push back against perceptions of mass desertion.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)