Yahya Sinwar

Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (Arabic: يحيى إبراهيم حسن السنوار, romanized: Yaḥyá Ibrāhīm Ḥasan al-Sinwār; 29 October 1962 – 16 October 2024) was a Palestinian politician who served as the de facto leader of Hamas. 

He was the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau in August 2024 until October 2024 and the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip in February 2017 until October 2024, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh in both roles.

Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-ruled Gaza in 1962 to a family, who had been expelled or fled from Ashkelon during the 1948 Palestine War. He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies. For orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators in 1989, Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel, of which he served 22 years until his release among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. During his time in prison, his life was saved by Israeli doctors who removed a brain tumor. Sinwar was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.

In 2017, Sinwar was elected as the leader of Hamas in Gaza and claimed to pursue 'peaceful, popular resistance' the following year, supporting the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests. He also developed strong ties with Iran. Re-elected as Hamas leader in 2021, Sinwar survived an assassination attempt by Israel that same year. He is widely regarded as the mastermind behind the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023. The group had been planning the attack for two years, with Sinwar seeking to involve Hezbollah and Iran, while avoiding confrontations to maintain the element of surprise.

Hamas and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have been designated terrorist organisations by the United States, the European Union, and other countries and, in September 2015, Sinwar was specifically designated a terrorist by the United States government. In May 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Sinwar for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.

In September 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Sinwar for his role in the 7 October attacks.

The Israel Defence Forces confirmed through DNA analysis that Sinwar was killed a day earlier in Gaza during a firefight with the IDF.

Early life and education

Yahya Ibrahim Hassan al-Sinwar was born on 29 October 1962, in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, when the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule, where he spent his early years. His family were expelled from or fled from Al-Majdal Asqalan (Arabic: مدينة مجدل, romanized: Medīna Majal), now known as Ashkelon, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar, discussing his refugee upbringing, tied it to his Hamas involvement in conversations with fellow prisoners during his later imprisonment. According to Esmat Mansour, another inmate, Sinwar was deeply affected by the communal living conditions and food distribution in the refugee camp. After he graduated from high school at Khan Yunis Secondary School for Boys, he went on to the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies. His younger brother is Mohammed Sinwar, a military leader in Hamas.

Early activities and imprisonment

Sinwar was first arrested in 1982 for subversive activities and he served several months in the Far'a prison where he met other Palestinian activists, including Salah Shehade, and dedicated himself to the Palestinian cause. Arrested again in 1985, upon his release he co-founded with Rawhi Mushtaha the Munazzamat al Jihad w'al-Dawa (Majd), an organization that worked, among others, to identify collaborators with Israel among the Palestinian population, which in 1987 became the Hamas "police". Sinwar's killing of suspected collaborators with Israel gained him the nickname "The Butcher of Khan Younis".

In 1988, Sinwar planned the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians whom he suspected of cooperating with Israel. He was arrested on February that year; during questioning he admitted to strangling one of the victims with his bare hands, suffocating another with a kaffiyeh, inadvertently killing a third during a violent interrogation, and accidentally shooting the fourth during an attempted abduction, and showed investigators an orchard where the four bodies were buried. He was sentenced to four life sentences in 1989. Sinwar regarded extracting confessions from collaborators as a righteous obligation. He told interrogators that one of them had even said that "he realized he deserved to die." Sinwar persisted in targeting informants while in prison. Israeli authorities suspected him of ordering the beheadings of two suspected snitches. Hamas operatives reportedly disposed of the victims' severed body parts by throwing them out of cell doors and telling guards to "take the dog's head."

Sinwar, respected for his resourcefulness among fellow inmates, attempted multiple escapes, including digging a hole in his cell floor to tunnel under the prison. He collaborated with Hamas leaders outside, smuggling cellphones into the prison and using visitors to relay messages. These often involved planning to kidnap Israeli soldiers for prisoner exchange. Years later, Sinwar would say, "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."

Sinwar's time in prison was transformative, shaping his leadership qualities, according to Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official. Sinwar also mastered Hebrew through an online program and extensively studied Israeli news to comprehend his adversary better. He meticulously translated Hebrew autobiographies of former Shin Bet chiefs into Arabic, sharing them with fellow inmates to study counterterrorism tactics. He referred to himself as a "specialist in the Jewish people's history." Sinwar once remarked to supporters: "They wanted prison to be a grave for us, a mill to grind our will, determination and bodies. But, thank God, with our belief in our cause we turned the prison into sanctuaries of worship and academies for study." Ma'ariv reported that during his time in prison, Sinwar enrolled in fifteen courses through the Open University of Israel over a span of seven years, beginning in 1995. Most were in history, covering topics such as the history of the Jews in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods, the First Temple period, The Holocaust, and Zionism, along with a political science course on governance and Israeli democracy.

Hamas elects its leaders democratically within prison. Committees handle day-to-day decisions and punishments, while an elected "emir" and a high council oversee operations for limited terms. Sinwar alternated as emir with Rawhi Mushtaha, a confidant, during his imprisonment, serving as emir in 2004. Despite his leadership among prisoners, Sinwar remained humble, sharing cooking duties and other chores with junior inmates as well as making knafeh for fellow prisoners, fostering camaraderie.

In 2004, Sinwar, displaying symptoms like standing for prayer then falling and drifting in and out of consciousness, complained of neck pain. A prison dentist, Yuval Bitton, suspected a brain issue, possibly a stroke or abscess, urging urgent hospitalization. At Soroka Medical Center, Israeli surgeons removed a fatal brain tumor. Bitton emphasized that without surgery, the tumor would have burst. He recounts that a few days later, he visited Sinwar in the hospital with a prison officer. Sinwar asked the Muslim officer guarding him to thank the dentist and to explain to him the significance of his life-saving surgery in Islam and how he felt indebted to him for saving his life. Sinwar rarely interacted with Israeli prison authorities, but he began regular meetings with a dentist. Their discussions, unlike the dentist's usual chats with inmates, focused solely on Hamas ideology. Sinwar, who knew the Qu'ran by heart, articulated Hamas' beliefs, emphasizing its religious stance on the land. He dismissed the possibility of a two-state solution, asserting the land belonged to Muslims.

In a search of Sinwar's cell, guards confiscated a handwritten novel he completed at the end of 2004. The book, titled The Thorn and the Carnation, mirrored his life and the Palestinian resistance. The story revolves around Ahmed, a devout Gazan boy, navigating life under Israeli occupation during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. At least one copy was smuggled out, and a typed PDF was found in an online library by The New York Times.

Sinwar's sole interview with an Israeli television outlet in 2005 saw him warning Israelis to "be scared" of Hamas's election victory. However, he privately conveyed that much depended on the Israeli government's actions. He emphasized Hamas' demand for rights from the Israeli leadership, not control of the entire town.

Sinwar played a pivotal role in the negotiations for Gilad Shalit's release. Despite being part of the negotiation team, Sinwar opposed deals that did not include high-profile prisoners, known as "the impossibles," such as those serving multiple life sentences. Even after negotiations secured the release of over a thousand prisoners, including some high-profile ones, Sinwar remained adamant. This stance led to a rift in Hamas leadership, with Saleh al-Arouri, another prominent Hamas figure, recognizing the need for compromise. Despite efforts to persuade Sinwar, he persisted, even attempting to orchestrate a hunger strike involving 1,600 Hamas prisoners. His unwavering principles and refusal to compromise complicated negotiations. Eventually, Sinwar's authority waned as other Hamas leaders negotiated a deal without him, as Israeli authorities had put him in solitary confinement until the deal was reached. He was the most senior Palestinian prisoner released to Gaza among 1,026 others in the 2011 prisoner exchange for the soldier. In an interview with Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV, he expressed determination to continue efforts to free more prisoners, urging the Al-Qassam Brigades to kidnap soldiers for exchanges.

Following his release from prison, Sinwar was elected to a role within Hamas akin to defense minister.

In November 2012, during the 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar met Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani in Tehran and after his 2017 election as the group's leader in Gaza he cultivated closer cooperation between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Torture of Mahmoud Ishtiwi

Sinwar was believed to have overseen the torture and execution (in February 2016) of the Qassam Brigades' Zeitoun Battalion commander Mahmoud Ishtiwi, who was accused of embezzlement, homosexuality, and giving Israel information that led to the deaths of Widad and Ali Deif when their home was bombed by Israel in August 2014. Ishtwi was reportedly whipped, suspended from a ceiling for hours across multiple days, and ultimately killed by being shot with three bullets to the chest.

Leadership of Hamas in the Gaza Strip (2017–2024)

In February 2017, Sinwar was secretly elected the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, taking over from Ismail Haniyeh. In March, he established a Hamas-controlled administrative committee for the Gaza Strip, opposing power sharing with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Sinwar rejects any reconciliation with Israel. He has called on militants to capture more Israeli soldiers. In September 2017, a new round of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority began in Egypt, and Sinwar agreed to dissolve the Hamas administrative committee for Gaza. He was said to have silenced hard-line voices in Gaza, ordering against the use of tunnels that Mohammed Deif wanted to use to sneak fighters into Israel before they were shut down by new classified Israeli technology in 2017.

On 16 May 2018, in an unexpected announcement on Al Jazeera, Sinwar stated that Hamas would pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" to the Israeli occupation, opening the possibility that Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by many countries, may play a role in negotiations with Israel. A week earlier he had encouraged Gazans to breach the Israeli siege, saying "We would rather die as martyrs than die out of oppression and humiliation", and adding, "We are ready to die, and tens of thousands will die with us."

On 1 December 2020, Sinwar tested positive for COVID-19 and was reportedly following the advice of health authorities and taking precautionary measures. A spokesman for the group also said that he was in "good health and [...] pursuing his duties as usual."

In March 2021, Sinwar was elected to a second four-year term as the head of Hamas in Gaza.

On 15 May 2021, an Israeli airstrike was reported to have hit the home of the Hamas leader; there were no immediate details of any deaths or injured. The strike took place in the Khan Yunis region of southern Gaza in the midst of evergrowing tension between Israelis and Palestinians. However, in the week that followed, he appeared publicly at least four times. The most obvious was in a press conference on 27 May 2021, when he mentioned (on air) that he will go home after the press conference (on foot), and invited the Israeli Minister of Defense to take the decision to assassinate him in the following 60 minutes, until he reaches his home. Sinwar spent the next hour wandering in Gaza streets and having selfie photos with the public.

In the autumn of 2022, Hamas began planning a surprise attack on Israel. Sinwar sought to convince Iran and Hezbollah to participate in the attack or in a broader conflict with Israel, aiming to cause its 'collapse'. During one meeting, Sinwar acknowledged that such an attack would likely require sacrifices, probably referring to the people of Gaza. In September 2022, he reviewed the battle plans, though the attack was postponed. By May 2023, Sinwar and his colleagues were relieved to have avoided a minor confrontation during Ramadan, intending to preserve the element of surprise for the October 7 attack.

Israel–Hamas war

Sinwar—along with Mohammed Deif—is regarded as the mastermind behind the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, the deadliest attack in Israeli history. The attack left around 1,200 people dead and about 240 taken as hostages in Gaza. Following the attack, Sinwar was put under EU terrorist sanctions and became a top target for assassination by the Israeli military. Israeli intelligence presumed Sinwar was hiding in a complex system of tunnels beneath Gaza and was surrounded by hostages acting as human shields.

After three weeks of conflict in the Israel–Hamas war, Sinwar proposed the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli confinement in exchange for the release of all the hostages kidnapped in the conflict. Sinwar reportedly visited the hostages in the early days of the war promising they would not be harmed. When one of the hostages, Yocheved Lifshitz, said Sinwar should be ashamed of himself, he was silent.

On November 7, after Israel had surrounded Gaza City, it claimed it had "trapped" Sinwar in a bunker there. Israeli military authorities later claimed he was in Khan Yunis in an underground bunker. Leaflets allegedly dropped by Israel into Gaza proclaimed a bounty of $400,000 for providing information on Sinwar's location. According to Reuters, Israel is demanding the exile of Sinwar, Deif, and four other Hamas leaders from Gaza as a condition for a ceasefire.

By February 2024 the IDF believed that Sinwar had moved to Rafah from Khan Younis. According to the IDF, Sinwar is constantly on the move and thus is unable to personally command Hamas forces. On 13 February IDF released CCTV footage dated 10 October showing Sinwar and his wife and children as well as his brother Ibrahim in a Hamas tunnel complex in Khan Younis. The IDF stated that they are collecting intelligence and interrogating Hamas commanders and their relatives to find Sinwar.

On 20 May 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Sinwar for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.

In June 2024, The Wall Street Journal published what it said were leaked communications between Sinwar and Hamas' leadership, in which Sinwar claimed to "have the Israelis right where we want them" and suggested that Palestinian civilian deaths were "necessary sacrifices" that would "infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honour". The authenticity of these messages could not be verified. Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesperson, refuted the report, asserting that Sinwar never made such comments and was instead focused on ending the conflict swiftly, calling the circulated statements "completely incorrect".

On 3 September 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Sinwar for his role in the 7 October attack on Israel. The charges, which were filed under seal in February 2024, include conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals.

Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau (2024)

Following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on 31 July 2024, Hamas named Yahya Sinwar as the new "overall leader" of the movement, as well as the new chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau. The announcement came after the Shura Council, the body that elects Hamas's politburo, voted unanimously to choose Sinwar as the new leader, in what was described by a Hamas official as a "message of defiance to Israel".

According to the BBC, Yahya Sinwar's election as the leader of Hamas "signalled the end of an era and the beginning of a new, more extreme phase." Per Hamas officials, he was elected due to his considerable popularity in the Arab and Islamic worlds following the October 7 attacks and his strong connections with the "Axis of Resistance," a network of armed groups led by Iran. According to The Wall Street Journal, his election suggests that the movement endorses his strategy of waging war against Israel in conjunction with Iran's militia allies, also noting that Sinwar has gained increasing popularity among Palestinians due to his approach in handling the conflict. The Economist report indicates that Sinwar's election makes a ceasefire less likely as he represents Hamas's most extreme faction. His leadership consolidates Hamas's alignment with Iran and its resistance to diplomatic negotiations.

The IDF Military Intelligence Directorate announced in September that they had begun an investigation into Sinwar's possible death in an airstrike after noting that he had not been heard from for some time. Israel Hayom reported that Israeli authorities believed he was still alive, and lacked any direct evidence of his death, but were "exploring other scenarios". In October Sinwar re-established contact with the Hamas delegation in Qatar.

Death

On 17 October 2024, Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said they were looking into whether Sinwar was among three individuals killed in an operation in Gaza that took place the previous day, though neither Israel or Hamas made any official confirmation. IDF soldiers who were investigating a strike on Hamas members found a body with striking resemblance to Sinwar and a DNA sample was collected.

The IDF confirmed through DNA analysis that Sinwar was killed a day earlier in Gaza during a firefight with the IDF. Israel Police said in a statement that the body matched Sinwar's dental records and fingerprints. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Sinwar's death marks the beginning of a new era without Hamas's rule over Gaza, urging Gazans to seize the opportunity to break free from its tyranny, and adding that those holding hostages will be spared if they surrender and release them.

Personal life

Sinwar married Samar Muhammad Abu Zamar in 21 November 2011, who is 18 years younger than him, and has three children. The oldest one is Ibrahim Yahya, hence the name Abu Ibrahim as his kunya. His wife holds a master's degree in theology from the Islamic University of Gaza.

In addition to his native Arabic, he spoke Hebrew, which he learned during his imprisonment, along with insights into Israeli culture.

Sinwar was a hafiz, who completely memorized the Quran.

Bibliography

• Sinwar, Yahya (2004), The Thorn and the Carnation, ISBN 9798224053018 (published by Draft2digital)