The Israeli military is investigating whether it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, seen as the mastermind of the 7 October terror attack inside Israel.
Sinwar had evaded the Israeli military’s attempts to hunt him since its retaliatory war against Hamas inside Gaza began last year.
Long considered a planner of Hamas’s military strategy in Gaza, all while hiding in the tunnels that criss-cross under the territory, Sinwar consolidated his power when he was made the top leader of Hamas in the summer. He was elevated to that post after the assassination of the group’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh in a suspected Israeli strike in Tehran in July.
Born and raised in Gaza
Sinwar was born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in 1962. His family had fled its home, along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians during the wars that created the state of Israel. It is this history that is said to have played a major role in his decision to join Hamas in the 1980s.
Sinwar had been recruited by Hamas’s founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
The descent into violence
He was first arrested in 1982, preceding a string of arrests throughout the 80s. After his release from prison in 1985, Sinwar co-founded the Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa (Majd) along with Rawhi Mushtaha, an organisation aiming to weed out Palestinians who were collaborating with the Israeli government.
By 1987, this had become the “police” of Hamas, according to the Palestinian Information Centre. Sinwar, with a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness, earned the title of the “Butcher of Khan Younis”.
Decades in prison
In the late 1980s, Sinwar was arrested by Israel and admitted to killing 12 suspected collaborators, and sentenced to four life terms for offences which included killing two Israeli soldiers. He reportedly made multiple attempts to escape, including one where he tried to dig a hole in his cell floor in the hopes he could tunnel out.
He spent more than two decades in prison in Israel, where he learned Hebrew and developed an understanding of Israeli society. During his time in prison, Sinwar told an Italian journalist that prison is a crucible. “Prison builds you,” he said. He added that it gave him time to think about the price he was willing to pay for what he believed in.
He was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008, surviving after treatment by Israeli doctors, before his eventual release from prison in 2011 after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a deal, with 1,026 prisoners released in return for an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid.
Sinwar is believed to have said: “For the prisoner, capturing an Israeli soldier is the best news in the universe, because he knows that a glimmer of hope has been opened for him.” After his release he married and had children.
