Photo Credit : IDF
Yahya Sinwar
In 2018, the Head of the Hamas terrorist organization, Yahya Sinwar, declared to the world: “We will take down the border with Israel and we will tear their hearts from their bodies.”
Last Saturday, October 7th, Sinwar’s declaration became Israel’s reality.
Sinwar is Hamas’ leader in Gaza, the second in command of the entire Hamas, and one of the founders of the Hamas’ military wing. Sinwar himself was the mastermind behind Hamas’ brutal massacres in the towns and communities of southern Israel and the Nova Music Festival on October 7th.
Hamas is not only a terrorist organization but also, unfortunately, the elected sovereign in Gaza. As its leader, Sinwar diverts all of Gaza’s resources to finance building terrorist infrastructure such as underground attack tunnels, rocket launchers, and weapons, leaving the majority of Gazan civilians to live in poverty while Hamas terrorist leaders like Sinwar himself are able to live luxurious lives. Leaders like Sinwar also use Gaza’s civilian population as human shields by positioning their terrorist infrastructure inside hospitals, kindergartens, humanitarian centers and more. [IDF]
Sinwar himself was born in Gaza, in Khan Yunis, so why would he build and support such a horrific system that oppresses his own people?
In addition to helping found Hamas’ military wing, Sinwar helped found an organization that identified Palestinians who worked with Israel to thwart terrorist activity and personally planned the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians who were suspected of helping Israel thwart terrorist activity. He was captured and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences in an Israeli prison.
Sinwar became a prominent leader in prison. He became known for abusing and using harsh violence and cruel torture methods against those opposing him and those suspected of aiding Israel. He became known as “The Butcher from Khan Yunis”.
Yahya Sinwar (يحيى السنوار), born in 1962 in Gaza, has been Hamas’s leader in Gaza and a member of its Politburo since 2017. He is considered to be one of the main figures connecting Hamas’s politburo with its armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (IQB). He has led a re-evaluation of Hamas’s external relations, including an improvement in relations with Egypt. [European council for foreign relations]
Sinwar, 61, widely known as Abu Ibrahim, was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. His parents were from Ashkelon but became refugees after what Palestinians call “al-Naqba” (the Catastrophe) – the mass displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral homes in Palestine in the war that followed Israel’s founding in 1948.
He was educated at Khan Younis Secondary School for Boys and then graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language from the Islamic University of Gaza. [BBC]
In 1989, Sinwar was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for abducting and murdering two Israeli soldiers, and served in an Israeli prison—reportedly learning Hebrew there—until his 2011 release, part of a massive prisoner swap in which Israeli officials freed more than 1,000 prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Hamas. [Forbes]
In 2006, after lengthy negotiations, Sinwar was released as part of a deal made to retrieve an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas and held in Gaza for years. After his release, Sinwar became a prominent Hamas figure in Gaza and was officially recognized as a terrorist by the U.S. government in 2015.
He was elected to replace Ismail Haniya as Hamas’ leader and was at the forefront of the Hamas-instigated riots along the Gaza security fence, in which thousands of Palestinians attempted to break the fence in order to harm Israeli civilians.
Due to Sinwar’s key role in the massacring and brutalization of innocent children, women and men, the IDF Chief of the General Staff has recently stated: “This heinous attack was orchestrated by Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And so he, and the entire system underneath him, are dead men. We will target them, break them, and dismantle their system.”
When Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel more than a decade ago, he explained to an Israeli official a theory now central to the war in Gaza. Sinwar said that what Israel considers its strength—that most Israelis serve in the army and soldiers hold a special status in society—is a weakness that can be exploited, said Yuval Bitton, who spent time with Sinwar as the former head of the Israel Prison Service’s intelligence division. [WSJ]
It is said that Sinwar, the terror group’s leader in Gaza, spoke to the hostages in near-accentless Hebrew in a bid to reassure them after they were dragged into Gaza on October 7, and over 1,200 people were massacred by Hamas and other terrorists in and around their home communities, Channel 12 news reported, citing information from a recently released hostage. [The times of Israel]
Read also
Hamas (Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiya) (Islamic Resistance Movement)
Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) Covenant 1988
Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people: President Biden
Agreement between Fatah and Hamas – 03/05/2011
Crimes by Hamas Against Women & Children: Readout (7/12/2023)
Acknowledgement: IDF
