Yahya Sinwar had been the leader of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2017.
He was considered to have orchestrated the October 7 terror attacks on Israel in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 taken hostage, prompting Israeli retaliation and the ongoing conflict across the region.
After Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in the Iranian capital Tehran in August, Sinwar, considered more radical than Haniyeh, also took over that role — although he hadn’t actually been seen in public since October 7.
Sinwar was born in 1962 in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp. His family hailed from the area around the coastal town of Ashkelon, which is now part of Israeli territory.
When Hamas was formed during the first Palestinian uprising, the Intifada, at the end of the 1980s in the fight against Israeli occupation, Sinwar contributed to setting up Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
In the early years of Hamas’ existence, he was responsible for the fight against individuals within the organization’s own ranks suspected of collaborating with Israel. He was later handed four life sentences for killing two Israeli soldiers and several Palestinians who he suspected of collaboration.
Sinwar spent more than 20 years in Israeli prison, during which he is said to have learned Hebrew. He was released in 2011 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a prisoner exchange.
When Sinwar was made Hamas head in July, Kobi Michael from the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told DW he was popular among many Palestinians and seen as the “spearhead of armed resistance” against Israel.
Sinwar was considered a terrorist by the US and the European Union and was Israel’s most-wanted man in Gaza, he added.
