Israel claims to have killed Hamas political and military leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
Hamas has not yet confirmed this claim.
The Israeli military said Thursday that Sinwar had been positively identified after being killed the day before.
Sinwar had operated from Gaza throughout Israel’s 12-month war against the enclave, assuming overall control of the group after the assassination – widely believed to be by Israel – of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh , at the end of July.
Under Sinwar’s leadership, Hamas maintained its military pressure on Gaza – despite apparently being affected by Israeli assaults – by launching attacks on Israeli positions and maintaining civil administration throughout the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar has been a high-profile target of the Israeli military throughout its Gaza campaign, with numerous claims that the Hamas leader was trapped or even killed proving false.
‘Brain’?
Israeli officials say Sinwar was one of the masterminds behind Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, along with Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and Marwan Issa, deputy by Deif.
In February, the Israeli military shared footage it said showed Sinwar – with his wife, children and brother Ibrahim – in a tunnel complex in Khan Younis. The images were reportedly taken just days after the October 7 attack.
During the same press briefing, Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed that the army had captured many members of Sinwar’s family and other Hamas leaders and was interrogating them.
Numerous reports from rights agencies, including the United Nations, have documented the frequent use of torture by Israeli interrogators.
In addition to being wanted by the Israeli military, Sinwar, along with Haniyeh and Deif, have been the subject of attempts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to obtain arrest warrants against them for war crimes. from at least October 7, 2023.”
All have since been killed by the Israeli military, leaving only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the ICC indictment.
Born a refugee
Sinwar, also known as Abu Ibrahim, was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in Khan Younis. His family was displaced by Zionist gangs during the 1948 Nakba.
Sinwar’s family was from the Palestinian village of al-Majdal, which was razed to allow the Israeli city of Ashkelon to be built on its ruins.
In 1982, Sinwar, aged just 20, was first arrested by Israeli authorities for “Islamic activities.”
In 1985 he was arrested again. During this second stint in prison, he met and got closer to the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
At age 25, he helped found Hamas’s internal security organization, al-Majd, establishing an uncompromising reputation in his dealings with Palestinians who collaborated with Israel.
In 1988, at age 26, Sinwar was arrested again and sentenced to four life terms. He had been accused of plotting the murder of two Israeli soldiers and killing 12 Palestinians. He will spend 22 years in prison.
Sinwar reportedly remained strictly disciplined in prison, learning to speak and read Hebrew fluently and becoming a leader among his fellow inmates and a focal point in negotiations with prison staff.
He was released by Israel in 2011 in a prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit along with more than 1,000 other Palestinians. Even then, Sinwar was considered the highest ranking and most prominent of all those who were released.
His younger brother, Mohammed Sinwar, is also an armed Hamas commander. Some suspect he helped plan the cross-border raid in which Shalit was captured.
A pragmatist and his changing calculation
Once released, Sinwar quickly rose through the ranks of Hamas.
In 2013, he was elected a member of the Hamas political bureau in Gaza. In 2017, he became the leader of the movement.
In 2018, Sinwar signaled to Israel that Hamas’ tactics were moving toward unarmed resistance. Another war with Israel is “certainly not in our interest,” he said at the time.
But by the end of 2022, Sinwar’s calculus appeared to have changed. As Israel elected the most right-wing government in its history, with government officials making overtures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and signaling normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Sinwar and other Hamas leaders were apparently affected.
“Sinwar is a pragmatist, oscillating between political engagement and armed violence depending on circumstances,” Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Tel Aviv Tribune in December 2023.
On December 14, 2022, Sinwar and other Hamas leaders told a large crowd in Gaza that they predicted “open confrontation” after Israel elected the most right-wing government in its history. Sinwar’s threats were repeated in early 2023.
Regional influence
In his role leading Hamas in Gaza, Sinwar has focused on building ties in the region.
He restored ties with Egyptian leaders and rebuilt ties with Iran after disagreements over the Syrian civil war.
“Sinwar has proven himself to be a capable leader,” Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Tel Aviv Tribune, adding that Sinwar had pushed the political stakes “even higher” for Israel “because he was liberated as part of the civil war.” of a previous exchange of prisoners.
Analysts like Lovatt believe Deif was the real mastermind of the October 7 attack. But unlike Sinwar, known for his fiery public speeches, Deif has not been seen publicly in years. Israel claims it killed Deif in an attack on July 13, although Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Analysts believe that even before Haniyeh’s assassination, Sinwar played a key role in negotiations for a ceasefire and in the exchange of captives and prisoners between Hamas and Israel.
