The Israeli military on Thursday announced the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by its forces in southern Gaza the previous day. The Israeli military "confirms that after a year-long pursuit, yesterday (Wednesday), October 16, 2024, IDF (military) soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organisation, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip," it said in a statement.
Sinwar is among the Hamas leaders accused of masterminding the group's attack on Israel on October 7 last year, and is said to have been hiding in a network of tunnels the militants built under Gaza. Sinwar was the head of Hamas in Gaza during the October 7 attack, but rose to become the group's overall leader in August after the killing of political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
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 the 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.” According to a transcript of an interrogation with security officials published in Israeli media, Sinwar professed to have strangled an alleged collaborator with a keffiyeh scarf in a Khan Yunis cemetery.
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.”
Sinwar is said to have strived for a single Palestinian state bringing together the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank -- controlled by Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party -- and annexed east Jerusalem.
The Hamas chief was added to the US list of the most wanted "international terrorists" in 2015.
Vowing in November to "find and eliminate" Sinwar, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant urged Gazans to turn Sinwar in, adding "if you reach him before us, it will shorten the war".
*With Agency Inputs
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
