Israel-Hamas war: Who is Yahya Sinwar, the butcher of Khan Younis?

Sinwar was born in 1962 in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The Israeli army said its troops have entered the “heart of Gaza” and trapped the senior-most leader of Hamas in an underground bunker.

Dubbed Israel’s most wanted and called a “dead man walking”, Yahya Sinwar (61) is said to have orchestrated the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel that killed over 1,400 people.

Sinwar is one of the founding members of the Hamas. He was secretly elected the chief within the Gaza Strip in 2017. Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, is considered the leader of Hamas.  In the 1980s, Sinwar founded Majd, the internal security organization of Hamas.

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Sinwar was born in 1962 in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. His parents lived in Ashkelon before Israeli independence and later fled to the Gaza Strip. After studying at the University of Gaza, Sinwar first came to the attention of authorities in 1982. He was arrested for “subversive activities” and was imprisoned for two years. It here that he reportedly dedicated himself to the Palestinian cause and met several people with whom he collaborated later to build Hamas.

Sinwar was again arrested in 1985 and with militant Rawhi Mushtaha he founded Majd. After his release, Sinwar planned and executed the abduction and murder of six people - two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian men he had accused of collaborating with Israel.

According to Financial Times, his elimination is the main aim of the escalating Israeli campaign to “destroy” Hamas. Sinwar has been known for his “brutal methods of silencing those who he viewed as betraying Hamas."

Micha Kobi, a former intelligence officer with Shin Bet, interrogated Sinwar in 1989. He told Financial Times Sinwar once confronted a Hamas member whose brother was suspected of informing a rival Palestinian faction and made him bury his own brother alive. This offence that sent him to Israeli prison and he earned the moniker “the butcher of Khan Younis.”

He spent 23 years in jail before being released in 2011 as the most senior of more than 1,000 prisoners swapped for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. It was the highest price ever paid by the Jewish state for the release of one man.

Sinwar is said to have learned Hebrew in prison to understand the country he committed his life to destroying. According to The Jewish Chronicle, while serving the sentence Sinwar gave an interview in Hebrew on Israeli TV. Upon his release, Sinwar said the experience had taught him kidnapping Israeli soldiers was the only way to free Palestinian prisoners, The Guardian reported. In 2015, he was included by the USA in its blacklist of “specially designated global terrorists.”

Gaza may now be facing a devastating attack with Sinwar being the principal target. “He won’t surrender. He will die there in Gaza,” Kobi told Financial Times.