TEL AVIV — Israel’s successful extraction on Tuesday of a hostage from a Gaza tunnel for the first time in almost 11 months is reinforcing assessments that its troops are close to catching or killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in hiding underground since Oct. 7. 

The hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, is only the eighth abductee that Israel has managed to free and return alive and the only one rescued from a tunnel. Commando forces rescued the others from above-ground hiding sites. 

Alkadi was located in southern Gaza and freed in an operation the military described as highly complex, but which appears to have also enjoyed no small amount of luck. Much of the information about Alkadi’s rescue remains under wraps, but from his debriefing it appears his Hamas captors left him alone in a side room branching off from a tunnel network. It is not yet known why he was abandoned and what circumstances led Israeli special forces to the scene. 

In addition to the public and military euphoria over the operation’s outcome, it has also injected new momentum into the hunt for Sinwar, whom Israel has been chasing through the  tunnel labyrinth under Gaza for over 10 months, missing him by only minutes at least once. The head of the Hamas political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated four weeks ago in Tehran, while the group’s top military operative, Mohammed Deif, is believed to have been killed in an Israeli bombing in southern Gaza.