Hamas leader who threw region into turmoil with October 7 attacks

Yahya Sinwar

1962-2024

Hamas leader who threw region into turmoil with October 7 attacks

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza on Wednesday after more than a year of being hunted by the Israeli military.

He was one of the suspected masterminds of the attacks that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7 last year. He was the leader of Hamas in Gaza at the time, and became political leader of the group in August this year after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.

Sinwar, 61, was the most-wanted Hamas militant throughout the war that Israel launched in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the October 7 attacks, with a $400,000 dead-or-alive bounty on his head. More than 42,400 people have been killed in the enclave since the start of the conflict, Gazan health authorities said.

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  Yahya Sinwar in Gaza city in 2017. EPA

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  Sinwar is hugged by senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, right, at the Rafah crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on October 18, 2011. Reuters

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  Sinwar is greeted by a member of the Hamas military wing. Reuters

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  Sinwar waves to supporters during a Hamas rally in Gaza city on December 16, 2018, to mark the 31st anniversary of the group. EPA

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  Sinwar shouts slogans as he takes part in a tent city protest near the border with Israel, east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza strip, on March 30, 2018, to commemorate Land Day. AFP

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  Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah, centre, poses for a photo next to the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, fourth left, Sinwar, third right, and others during a meeting in Gaza city, in October 2017. AP

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  Sinwar holds the child of an Al Qassam Brigades fighter in Gaza city on May 24, 2021. AFP

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  Sinwar gestures during an anti-Israel rally in Gaza city on May 24, 2021. Reuters

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  Sinwar, right, meets Egyptian intelligence head Abbas Kamel in Gaza on May 31, 2021. EPA

Israeli officials long believed that he was hiding – and commanding operations – from somewhere inside the extensive network of underground tunnels Hamas built in Gaza. Recent reports said he had resurfaced after weeks of being incommunicado.

Sinwar spent much of his adult life in Israeli jails before being released in a 2011 prisoner swap. He became the militant group’s leader in Gaza in 2017. After October 7, Israel described him as the “face of evil” and the mastermind of the raids.

Commonly known as Abu Ibrahim, Sinwar grew up in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and helped found Hamas in the 1980s. In 1985, he founded Al Majd intelligence and security apparatus that worked to identify Israeli collaborators among the population in Gaza. It was his harsh treatment of suspected collaborators that earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Khan Younis".

In early 1988, he was arrested and given four life sentences for his role in the killing of two Israeli soldiers. He used the subsequent 23 years in prison, nearly four of which were spent in solitary confinement, to become fluent in Hebrew and learn about Israel's society and culture.

According to one of about 240 hostages captured on October 7, who was freed during an exchange between Hamas and Israel last November, Sinwar visited the captives held in Gaza's tunnel network early in the war. "Hello, I am Yahya Sinwar. You are the most protected here. Nothing will happen to you," he reportedly told the group in flawless Hebrew.

Sinwar positioned himself as a leader among inmates during his time in prison and led a series of hunger strikes to demand better conditions. He served several terms in the leadership body of the Hamas prisoners' union.

While incarcerated he translated several books on Israel's security apparatus and, like many Palestinian detainees, published several of his own works by smuggling them out of jail in bits and pieces. One such work was his semi-autobiographical novel Thistle and Cloves, about a young Palestinian man navigating Israeli occupation after the 1967 war.

Israeli intelligence assessments from his time in prison describe Sinwar as a “cruel, authoritative, influential” leader who had “unusual abilities of endurance” and an ability to “carry crowds".

In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bore responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr Khan said he was seeking arrest warrants for both men, among others.

Yahya Sinwar arrives at a celebration marking Al Quds Day in Gaza city. AFP

In February, Israel's army released a video purporting to show the Hamas leader, filmed on October 10, with members of his family in a tunnel in Gaza. The black and white images show a man being led through a tunnel together with a woman and three children. It was claimed to have been the first footage of him since Israel’s war on Gaza broke out.

Israeli security officials also extensively questioned hostages released by Hamas, hoping they could have heard or seen anything that might have helped them track him down.

In November, during the negotiations that led to a week-long truce and hostage and prisoner swap, Egyptian officials said Sinwar occasionally stopped taking calls for days on end because of security concerns. He routinely had aides schedule calls from Egyptian and Qatari mediators or fellow Hamas leaders.

He used secure lines that he would frequently change and sophisticated jamming devices to avoid exposing his location to Israel. He often communicated with Hamas field commanders through coded written messages.

In 2021, shortly after the fourth war between Hamas and Israel since 2008 and following an attempt on his life, Sinwar openly challenged Israel to assassinate him during a live news conference in the coastal territory.

“When I am done here, I will be walking for most of my journey home,” he said. “I will wrap this up in 10 minutes and it will take me another 10 minutes to get ready to leave, then I will walk for 20 or 30 minutes. That's nearly one hour or 3,600 seconds; enough for Israel to weaponise an aircraft and launch it,” he taunted. “Yet, I will not bat an eyelid."

Shortly after the news conference, Palestinian TV networks broadcast footage of the Hamas leader confidently walking the streets of Gaza, surrounded by aides and security guards while joyfully greeting and shaking hands with his supporters.

The last time he was seen in public is believed to be a year before the attack on Israel.