Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar Who Was Killed by Israel?”/>
The Israeli military confirmed that it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar who was considered the mastermind of the October 7 attack in Israel.
Sinwar has evaded Israeli military efforts to hunt him down since the reprisal war against Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip began last year.
Long considered Hamas’ military strategist in Gaza, while hiding in the tunnels that crisscross the territory, Sinwar consolidated his power when he was appointed Hamas’ supreme leader in the summer.
He was appointed to the post after the assassination of the group’s political head, Ismail Haniyeh, in an alleged Israeli attack in Tehran, Iran, in July.
Born and raised in Gaza
Sinwar was born in the refugee camp in Khan Younis in 1962. His family had fled their home along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the war 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 was recruited by Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Arrested
He was first arrested in 1982, before a series of other arrests throughout the 1980s. After being released from prison in 1985, Sinwar founded Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa (Majd) with Rawhi Mushtaha, an organization aimed at eliminating Palestinians who collaborated with the Israeli government.
In 1987, this organization became the Hamas police, according to the Palestine Information Center. Sinwar, who was known to be brutal and cruel, received the title Butcher of Khan Younis.
Prison
In the late 1980s, Sinwar was arrested by Israel and confessed to killing 12 suspected collaborators and was sentenced to four life sentences for offenses that included killing two Israeli soldiers.
He reportedly made several attempts to escape, including once when he tried to dig a hole in the floor of his cell in the hope he could escape through a tunnel.
He spent more than two decades in an Israeli prison, where he learned Hebrew and developed an understanding of Israeli society. While in prison, Sinwar told an Italian journalist that prison was a difficult place.
“Prison builds you,” he said. He added that prison gave him time to think about the price he was willing to pay for what he believed in.
Prisoner exchange
He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2008 and survived after being treated by Israeli doctors. He was finally released from prison in 2011 after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a deal with 1,026 prisoners released in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border attack.
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 opened up for him.” After his release, he married and had children.
Ascend to power
After becoming head of Hamas in Gaza in 2017, Sinwar worked with Ismail Haniyeh to align the militant group with Iran while increasing its military capabilities. He won a second term in office in 2021, before becoming Hamas’ supreme leader following Haniyeh’s death.
In November, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Sinwar was isolated in his bunker. “He was cut off from his surroundings, his chain of command was weakened,” he said.
October 7 attack
There were reports from the Israeli army that Sinwar had been hiding among hostages in tunnels under Gaza. The last known footage of Sinwar shows a hunched man walking through a tunnel under Gaza accompanied by his wife and children.
The video was taken by Israeli soldiers during the raid on Gaza earlier this year but is thought to be from the days after the October 7 attack.
Sinwar, along with Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, is believed to have engineered an act of terror inside Israel on October 7. Deif was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.
The attack on October 7 killed around 1,200 Israelis, while 251 others were taken hostage. According to health authorities in Gaza, Israeli counterattacks inside Gaza by land and air have killed 42,000 Palestinians.
Killed
Channel 12 reported that the incident in question occurred on Wednesday (16/10) in the southern city of Rafah and that Israeli troops operating in the area did not know that Sinwar was there. Troops saw several fighters entering the building and an attack was ordered against it which collapsed the building.
Only after Israeli soldiers arrived to inspect the damage did they realize that one of the bodies closely resembled Sinwar, Channel 12 said. Israeli Army Eadio said visual evidence suggested one of the men was Sinwar and DNA tests were being carried out. Israel has samples of Sinwar’s DNA from his time in Israeli prison. (The Independent/Z-2)
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