Israel claims to have killed Hamas’s political and military leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
Hamas has yet to confirm the claim.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that Sinwar had been positively identified after he was killed the day before.
Sinwar had operated from Gaza throughout Israel’s 12-month war on the enclave, assuming overall control of the group following the assassination – widely believed to be by Israel – of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in late July.
Under Sinwar’s direction, Hamas maintained its military pressure in Gaza – despite reportedly being affected by Israeli assaults – launching attacks on Israeli positions, as well as maintaining civil administration across the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar has been a high-profile target of the Israeli military throughout its Gaza campaign, with numerous claims of the Hamas leader having been trapped or even killed proven false.
‘Mastermind’?
Israeli officials say Sinwar was one of the masterminds behind the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, along with Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’s military wing the Qassam Brigades, and Marwan Issa, Deif’s deputy.
In February, the Israeli military shared images that it claimed show Sinwar – along with his wife, children and brother Ibrahim – in a tunnel complex in Khan Younis. The images were reportedly taken just days after the October 7 attack.
During the same briefing, Israeli spokesperson Daniel Hagari claimed the military had taken many of the family members of Sinwar and other Hamas leaders captive and were interrogating them.
Numerous reports from rights agencies, including the United Nations, have documented the frequent use of torture by Israeli interrogators.
In addition to being sought by the Israeli military, Sinwar, along with Haniyeh and Deif, had been the focus of attempts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek warrants for their arrest for war crimes “from at least 7 October 2023”.
All have since been killed by the Israeli military, leaving only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on the ICC charge sheet.
Born a refugee
Sinwar, also known as Abu Ibrahim, was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in Khan Younis. His family was displaced by Zionist gangs during the 1948 Nakba.
Sinwar’s family were from the Palestinian village of al-Majdal, which was razed to have the Israeli town of Ashkelon built on its ruins.
In 1982, Sinwar, not quite 20 years old, was arrested for the first time by Israeli authorities for “Islamic activities”.
In 1985, he was arrested again. During this second stint in prison, he met and became close to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
At 25, he helped establish Hamas’s internal security organisation, al-Majd, earning himself an uncompromising reputation for dealing with Palestinians who collaborated with Israel.
In 1988, at 26, Sinwar was arrested again and given four life sentences. He had been charged with plotting the murder of two Israeli soldiers and killing 12 Palestinians. He would spend 22 years in prison.
Sinwar is said to have remained strictly disciplined in prison, learning to speak and read Hebrew fluently and becoming a leader among his fellow prisoners and a focal point for negotiations with prison staff.
He was released by Israel in 2011 in a prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit with more than 1,000 other Palestinians. Even at the time, Sinwar was considered to be the most senior and prominent of all of those released.
His younger brother, Mohammed Sinwar, is also an armed commander with Hamas. Some suspect he helped plan the cross-border raid in which Shalit was captured.
A pragmatist and his shifting calculus
Once released, Sinwar quickly climbed the ladder in Hamas.
In 2013, he was elected as a member of Hamas’s politburo in Gaza. In 2017, he became the movement’s leader in 2017.
In 2018, Sinwar signalled to Israel that Hamas’s tactics were moving towards non-armed resistance. Another war with Israel is “definitely not in our interest”, he said at the time.
But by late 2022, Sinwar’s calculus seemingly changed. As Israel elected its most right-wing government in history, with government authorities making overtures at Al-Aqsa Mosque and signalling at Israeli normalisation with Saudi Arabia, Sinwar and other Hamas leaders were seemingly impacted.
“Sinwar is a pragmatist, shifting between political engagement and armed violence according to circumstances,” Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera in December 2023.
On December 14, 2022, Sinwar and other Hamas leaders told a large crowd in Gaza they predicted an “open confrontation” after Israel elected the most right-wing government in its history. Sinwar’s threats were repeated in early 2023.
Regional outreach
In his role leading Hamas in Gaza, Sinwar focused on building ties in the region.
He restored ties with Egypt’s leadership and rebuilt links with Iran after disagreements over the Syrian civil war.
“Sinwar has shown himself to be a skilled leader,” Daniel Byman, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al Jazeera, adding that Sinwar pushed the political stakes “even higher” for Israel “because he was released as part of a previous prisoner exchange”.
Analysts like Lovatt believe Deif was the true mastermind of the October 7 attack. But unlike Sinwar, who is known for his fiery public speeches, Deif has not been seen publicly in years. Israel claims it killed Deif in a July 13 attack, though Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Analysts believe that even before Haniyeh’s assassination, Sinwar was playing a key role in negotiations for a ceasefire and the exchange of captives and prisoners between Hamas and Israel.
