Israel Claims Killing Yahya Sinwar in Gaza

Beirut: Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who stunned Israel and the world as a mastermind of the 2023 raid on Israel that set off the devastating Gaza war was killed by Israel's military on Thursday. He was 61.

The Israeli military had long targeted Sinwar, referring to him as a "dead man walking." 

According to the leaked photos - Sinwar was wearing his military uniform, armed, and perhaps engaged in a fight when he was targeted, media reports said.

His death, if confirmed, would be a significant moment in Israel's yearlong offensive against the Hamas and could complicate efforts to reach a ceasefire in the year long war that has left thousands dead.

"He was very clever, he was very tough, very serious all the time," Michael Koubi, who spent more than 150 hours questioning Sinwar during his interrogation, recalled in an interview with The Washington Post. "And he had for Israel, a very deep hate."

Sinwar became the head of Hamas after Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in July in an apparent Israeli operation.

From refugee camp to Hamas militant

Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar was born into the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza in 1962 after his family had been forced out of the Palestinian town of Majdal -- now the Israeli city of Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War - an upbringing that heavily influenced his ideological commitment to resisting Israeli occupation. 

Sinwar co-founded Majd, Hamas's security apparatus, in the late 1980s, which focused on finding and killing Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel. 

He was arrested and jailed in Israel in 1988 and charged with killing two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he suspected of collaborating with them.

Sinwar was sentenced to four life terms but was released in 2011 after 23 years in a prisoner exchange deal for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit had been captured by his comrades who successfully got him freed in exchange along with 1000 other prisoners.

While imprisoned, Sinwar spent two decades learning Hebrew and devouring texts to understand Israeli society. He translated tens of thousands of pages of autobiographies written by the former Israeli spymasters from Hebrew to Arabic. 

Sinwar once told an Italian journalist, "Prison builds you," allowing you the time to think about what you believe in "and the price you are willing to pay" for it. 

He reportedly tried to escape prison several times, once digging a hole in the prison floor in the hopes of tunneling under the facility and escaping through the visitor center. 

"They wanted prison to be a grave for us, a mill to grind our will, determination and bodies," Sinwar once told supporters. "But, thank God, with our belief in our cause, we turned the prison into sanctuaries of worship and academies for study."

Sinwar wrote a novel while in prison, "The Thorn and the Carnation," a coming-of-age story that mirrored his own life.

After he was freed by the Israelis in 2011, he married and had children. 

In 2017, Sinwar was chosen as the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, shifting the region to a more militant stance and strengthening alliances with Iran and Hezbollah. 

According to the BBC, Yahya Sinwar's election as the leader of Hamas "signalled the end of an era and the beginning of a new, more extreme phase." As per Hamas officials, he was elected due to his considerable popularity in the Arab and Islamic worlds following the October 7 attacks and his strong connections with the "Axis of Resistance," a network of armed groups led by Iran. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, his election suggests that the movement endorses his strategy of waging war against Israel in conjunction with Iran's allies, also noting that Sinwar has gained increasing popularity among Palestinians due to his approach in handling the conflict.

During the 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar met Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander General Qasem Soleimani several times.

After his 2017 election as the group's leader in Gaza he cultivated closer cooperation between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Sinwar's death, if confirmed, will be a major blow to Iran after the assassination of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Nasrallah.

It's unclear who would replace Sinwar, and what that might mean for the ongoing resistance in Gaza and ceasefire talks which sputtered to a halt in August after months of negotiations.

Hamas has hundreds of thousands of supporters in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Palestinian refugee camps across the region. Several of its top leaders are based in Qatar, which has served as a mediator between Israel and the militant group.

Israel has arrested and killed several top Hamas leaders and militant commanders over the years, and the group has quickly replaced them. But it has never fought a prolonged war against Israel, which says it has killed dozens of high-ranking commanders.