The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may have just eliminated target number one: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack on Israel.
Mr. Sinwar rose to the top post after former leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a Tehran guesthouse bombing on July 30.
Mr. Sinwar, 61, known by Israel as the “Butcher of Khan Yunis” for his violent and brutal torture methods against both Israeli and Palestinian enemies, is responsible for the massacre of thousands of Israeli civilians by Hamas militants. He is widely seen as the mastermind. October 7th.
The Israel Defense Forces had long targeted Shinwar, calling him a “dead man walking.”
“No matter how long it takes, we will get to him…and this war could be long,” IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said last year.
Shinwar is believed to be hiding in tunnels beneath Gaza.
Sinwar was born in Gaza's Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1962 after his family was evacuated from Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. This upbringing greatly influenced his ideological determination to resist Israeli occupation.
On May 24, 2021, elected Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (C) appears at a memorial ceremony for fighters killed in an Israeli airstrike at Yarmouk Football Stadium in Gaza City, Gaza District. (Photo by Laurent Van der Stockt/Getty Images)
Sinwar co-founded Hamas's security agency Majid in the late 1980s, which focused on finding and killing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.
He was arrested and imprisoned in Israel in 1988 and charged with the murders of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians suspected of collaborating with them.
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Shinwar was sentenced to four life sentences, but was released in 2011 in a prisoner exchange agreement with Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
While incarcerated, Shinwar spent 20 years learning Hebrew and devouring books to understand Israeli society. He translated tens of thousands of pages of autobiographies written by former heads of Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, from Hebrew into Arabic.
“Prison makes you grow,” Sinwar once told an Italian journalist, giving him time to think about what he believes in and “the price he is willing to pay” for it.
He reportedly attempted to escape from the prison several times, once digging a hole in the prison floor and tunneling beneath the facility in an attempt to escape through the visitor center.
“They wanted prison to be a tomb for us, a factory to crush our will, our resolve and our bodies,” Shinwar once told supporters. “But thank God, because of our belief in our cause, we have transformed the prison into a sanctuary of worship and an academy for study.”
While in prison, Shinwar wrote the novel “Thorns and Carnations,'' a coming-of-age story that reflected his own life. The film told the story of a Gazan boy who emerges from hiding after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and finds life under Israeli occupation in which his “chest of youth boils like a cauldron.” The boy's family and friends attacked the occupiers and those who collaborated with them.
Sinwar rose to the top post in Hamas after former leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a Tehran guesthouse bombing on July 30. (Photo credit: Mohammed Talatene/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
A few days after the October 7 attack on Israel, Shinwar and his family fled through Hamas underground tunnels. (IDF)
After being freed by Israelis in 2011, he married and had a child.
In 2017, Mr. Sinwar was elected political leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, transforming the region into a more militant posture and strengthening alliances with Iran and Hezbollah.
He is believed to have used Israeli hostages as human shields to evade attacks by the IDF. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that there was “no indication that there were any hostages” around him.
IDF investigating whether Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza operation
But as David Halperin, director of the Israel Policy Forum, pointed out, Hamas could retaliate by harming the hostages.
“The risks to the hostages at this moment are enormous. Urgent efforts to return them are essential,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The Hostage Families Forum said in a statement: “We commend the security forces for eliminating Sinwar, who masterminded the greatest massacre our country has ever faced and was responsible for the killing of thousands and abduction of hundreds.” .
“However, we express deep concern about the fate of the 101 men, women, elderly and children still held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “We call on the United States to leverage its military achievements into diplomatic achievements.” Immediate agreement to release all 101 hostages, those alive for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial. By pursuing. ”
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Mr. Sinwar's death could signal a shift in the course of the war, prompting Hamas to agree to some of Israel's demands, or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's desire to “eliminate” Hamas. There is also the possibility that the parties may soften their negotiating stance if the following conditions are satisfied.
