The Palestinian al Quds newspaper published in east Jerusalem revealed documents it described as instructions left by slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar written by his own hand in which he refers to the hostages abducted by Hamas, describes them and how they are to be treated.
The paper published three such documents written over a year ago, before the only hostage release, last November. They include instructions to protect the hostages, details about them and the names of 11 women that have since been released.
The first documents include scriptures from the Quran referring to how hostages are to be treated. "They must be protected, they are an important bargaining chip," he wrote.
The second document lists hostages by gender and age and whether they are soldiers or civilians. It lists five men over the age of 60, ten men under 60, three soldiers, three women under 40 marked X, presumably dead, and four women over 40. 25 in total, 22 of them alive.
According to the document, 25 hostages were being held in central Gaza including six soldiers, 12 reservists, the oldest being 53, and seven young people aged 21 to 27. In Rafah, two men over the age of 60, were held along with four Bedouins, one aged 55 and the others 18-22. In the Gaza City district – six soldiers, male and female and three reservists were held along with four young people and and a 66-year-old Bedouin. In total the document lists 71 hostages.
The third document includes a list of female hostages, most elderly and all eventually released including their ages and if they had non-Israeli nationalities.
Al Quds did not report where the documents were found or how they were received by the paper.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: