Yahya Sinwar.. Who is the Hamas leader that Israel announced his assassination?

Yahya Sinwar had a prominent student activity during his university studies, as he was an active member of the Islamic Bloc, which is the student branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.

He held the position of Secretary-General of the Technical Committee, then the Sports Committee in the Student Council at the Islamic University of Gaza, then Vice-President of the Council, then President of the Council.

Student activity helped him gain experience and wisdom that qualified him to assume leadership roles in the Hamas movement after its founding in 1987 during the Intifada.

In 1986, he founded, with Khaled Al-Hindi and Rawhi Mushtaha - at the behest of the movement's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin - a security apparatus called the Jihad and Call Organization, known as "Majd."

The mission of this organization was to uncover and pursue agents and spies of the Israeli occupation, in addition to tracking Israeli intelligence officers and security services. This organization soon became the first nucleus for developing the internal security system of the Hamas movement.

Arrests and prison life

He was first arrested in 1982 for his student activities when he was 20 years old. He was placed under administrative detention for 4 months and was re-arrested a week after his release. He remained in prison for 6 months without trial. In 1985, he was arrested again and sentenced to 8 months.

On January 20, 1988, he was arrested again and tried on charges of leading the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers, and the killing of four Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel, and was sentenced to four life sentences (426 years).

During his imprisonment, he led the Supreme Leadership Committee of Hamas prisoners in prisons for two organizational sessions, and contributed to managing the confrontation with the Prison Service during a series of hunger strikes, including the strikes of 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.

The book "Hamas: Trial and Error" deals with the experience of the Hamas movement and its development over time.

Political and military activity after prison

Yahya Sinwar was released in 2011, and was one of more than a thousand prisoners freed in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in what was called the "Wafa al-Ahrar" deal.

The deal was concluded after Shalit spent more than 5 years in captivity in Gaza, and Israel did not succeed during its aggression against the Strip at the end of 2008 in freeing him from captivity.

After leaving prison, Sinwar was elected a member of the Hamas political bureau during the movement's internal elections in 2012. He also assumed responsibility for the military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and was tasked with coordinating between the movement's political bureau and the brigades' leadership.

He played a major role in coordinating between the political and military sides of the movement during the Israeli aggression on Gaza in 2014.

After the end of this aggression, Sinwar conducted comprehensive investigations and evaluations of the performance of field leaders, which resulted in the dismissal of prominent leaders.

In 2015, Hamas appointed him as the official in charge of the file of Israeli prisoners it holds, and tasked him with leading the negotiations regarding them with the Israeli occupation. In the same year, the United States of America classified him on the list of “international terrorists,” and Israel placed him on the list of those wanted for liquidation in the Gaza Strip.

On February 13, 2017, he was elected head of the movement's political bureau in the Gaza Strip, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh.

During this period, he tried to repair relations between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority led by the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in the West Bank, and to end the state of political division in the Palestinian territories within the framework of national reconciliation, but these attempts ended in failure.

He also worked to improve relations with Egypt, where he met with leaders of Egyptian intelligence in Cairo in 2017 as part of a leadership and security delegation, and agreements were reached on living conditions, security, humanitarian issues, and borders.

In March 2021, he was elected as the head of Hamas in Gaza for a second 4-year term in the movement's internal elections.

His house was bombed several times, as it was bombed and completely destroyed by occupation aircraft in 2012, during the aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014, and then during Israeli air strikes in May 2021.

Sinwar is described as a cautious personality, who does not speak much and rarely appears in public. He also possesses high leadership skills and has a strong influence on the movement's members.

Yahya Sinwar and the Al-Aqsa Flood

After the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, Yahya Sinwar became Israel's number one wanted man, along with Mohammed Deif, the commander-in-chief of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Eliminating the Hamas leader has become the most important strategic goal of the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, which it called "Iron Swords," as Israeli officials consider him the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attack.

On 14 November 2023, the British government imposed sanctions on Hamas leaders, including an asset freeze and travel ban, including Sinwar.

On November 30, 2023, the French authorities issued a decree freezing Sinwar’s assets for six months.

Sinwar did not appear in public during that war, and Haaretz reported that he met some of the Israeli prisoners during their detention in Gaza, and told them in fluent Hebrew that they were in the safest place and would not be harmed.

On December 6, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli army forces had surrounded Sinwar's home but had not reached him. Army officials believe that he and the rest of the leaders of Hamas's military wing are running operations from within the underground tunnel network that the brigades had built.

Arrest warrant

On May 20, 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that he had submitted a request to the court to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and on the other hand, Sinwar, Deif, and Haniyeh, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity following the events of October 2023.

Commenting on this decision, Sami Abu Zuhri, a leader in the Hamas movement, told Reuters that the decision of the International Criminal Court to request the issuance of an arrest warrant for three leaders of the Palestinian movement "equalizes the victim with the executioner."

He added that the court's decision encourages Israel to continue its "war of extermination."

Hamas leader after Haniyeh

On July 31, 2024, Hamas announced that Israel had assassinated its political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, at his residence in the Iranian capital, Tehran, by bombing the apartment where he was staying with his aide.

After Haniyeh was buried in the Qatari capital, Doha, the movement began internal elections to choose a successor to Haniyeh, and announced on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, that its Shura Council had unanimously chosen Yahya Sinwar as the new head of the movement.

Israel announces killing of Sinwar

On Thursday, October 17, 2024, the Israeli army confirmed the killing of the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Yahya Sinwar, during clashes in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, Wednesday.

The Israeli army said in a statement that its soldiers carried out operations over the past few days in the southern Gaza Strip based on intelligence information indicating that Hamas leaders were present in the area.

He added that a force from the 828th Brigade present in the area clashed yesterday with 3 fighters and killed them, and after examination it was found that Sinwar was one of them, according to the army statement.

The Israeli army spokesman said that the soldiers were not aware that Sinwar was in the building where the exchange of fire took place in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Army Radio stated that the clash with Sinwar took place in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, and that he was wearing a military vest, along with another field commander.

Source: Al Jazeera + Agencies