Described by Israeli agents who interrogated him for hours in prison as “extremely intelligent“, Yahya Sinwarmastermind of the October 7 attacks, was elected in August 2024 again senior political leader of Hamasa group which, in reality, already dominated in the shadows of the interior of the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar took the reins of Hamas’ political bureau, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in an attack attributed to Israel; after having led the group within the enclave with an iron fist since 2017.
It was Yahya Sinwar
In this position, Sinwar was technically the group’s “number two” -only behind Haniyeh who lived in Qatar and was in charge of diplomatic relations-, but it was he who really controlled the important decisions of the group, combining power in the political and military areas.
His election, against all expectations, at the head of the political bureau, confirms the strategic change of the group that he himself promoted from Gaza, in which The military aspect has invaded politics. In fact, it was the military side – represented by him and Mohamed Deif – that planned the October 7 attack, and the political side, including Haniyeh, only found out when the plan was put forward.
Also Sinwar was the one who had the last word, always with hard positions, in the ceasefire talkswhich failed for the umpteenth time at the beginning of August, even if Haniyeh, more pragmatic and diplomaticserved as chief negotiator.
Both the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuas military leaders, have referred to Sinwar since the start of the war as “walking dead man“, but the Islamist leader has repeatedly escaped since October, moving like a fish through water among the group’s vast network of underground tunnels.
Even the army proposed in December 400,000 dollars to Gazans to indicate his whereabouts, in leaflets dropped by air in both Gaza and Khan Yunis, where troops surrounded one of his residences, leaving no trace of him.
Hamas is the most wanted
The most wanted member of Hamas, for which they offered the most money, followed only by Mohamed Deifmilitary leader of the Al Qasam Brigades – the armed wing of Hamas -, whom Israel killed during an attack in Mawasi on July 13. Little is known about him since the start of the war.
The hostage Yocheved LifshitzThe 85-year-old, released two weeks after captivity, said Sinwar visited several hostages held in a tunnel days after the attack and told them in correct Hebrew that they were safe there.
Israeli authorities have no doubt that Yahya Sinwar, who represents the hard-line and bellicose Hamas, was the one who carefully planned the attack in Israel, a country and society that he meticulously studied, helped by his mastery of Hebrew which he learned during his almost 23 years in an Israeli prison.
“He is a very intelligent person who invested in his intellectual development and a deep understanding of Israeli society,” said Betty Lahat, former director of Hasharon prison where Sinwar was held. He was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel in 1989 for plotting the kidnapping and murder of two soldiers. . Israeli and four Palestinian “collaborators” at the head of Hamas’s security services, but he was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of 1,047 Palestinian prisoners for the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Born in Jan YunisA bastion of Palestinian support for the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Sinwar was first arrested by Israel in 1982, at the age of 19, for “Islamic activities“, during which time he gained the trust of the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Two years after the creation of Hamas in 1987, Sinwar created the group’s feared internal security division, Al Majdguardian of the “Islamic morality” and a scourge for anyone suspected of collaborating with Israel. According to Israeli officials who interrogated him in prison, Sinwar proudly confessed to murdering 12 collaborators with his own hands and during his time in prison, he demonstrated his ability to leadership with a mixture of magnetism and instilling fear
