Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (; 29 October 1962 – 16 October 2024) was a Palestinian politician and militant. He served as the fourth chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024, and as the second leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from February 2017. He succeeded Ismail Haniyeh in both roles.
Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-occupied Gaza in 1962 to a family who had been expelled or fled from Majdal 'Asqalan during the 1948 Palestine War. He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies. In 1989, Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences in Israel for orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators. He spent 22 years in prison until his release among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. During his time in prison, Sinwar continued to coordinate the military activities of Hamas. Sinwar was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.
In 2017, Sinwar was elected as the leader of Hamas in Gaza and claimed to pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" the following year, supporting the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, though he was also reported to have been dedicated to eradicating Israel and was said to have seen military confrontation as the only path to "liberating Palestine", saying that this would be achieved "by force, not negotiations". He also developed strong ties with Iran. Re-elected as Hamas leader in 2021, Sinwar survived an assassination attempt by Israel that same year. He was widely regarded as the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks in 2023, which was followed by the Gaza war that spilled over to other parts of the Middle East. He was killed in a clash with the Israel Defense Forces in October 2024.
In September 2015 Sinwar was specifically designated a terrorist by the United States government. In May 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Sinwar for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.
Early life and education Yahya Ibrahim Hassan al-Sinwar was born on 29 October 1962, in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, when the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian occupation, where he spent his early years. His family were forcibly expelled from Majdal Asqalan (), now known as Ashkelon, during the Nakba, and sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar, discussing his refugee upbringing, tied it to his Hamas involvement in conversations with fellow prisoners during his later imprisonment. He "is said to have continually told his cellmates that Israel had to be defeated so that his family could return to its village." According to Esmat Mansour, another inmate, Sinwar was deeply affected by the communal living conditions and food distribution in the refugee camp. After he graduated from high school at Khan Yunis Secondary School for Boys, he went on to the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies. His younger brother is Mohammed Sinwar, a military leader of Hamas. Sinwar was a hafiz (a title given to those who have completely memorized the Quran).
Early activities and imprisonment Sinwar was first arrested in 1982 for subversive activities and he served several months in the Far'a prison where he met other Palestinian activists, including Salah Shehade, and dedicated himself to the Palestinian cause. Arrested again in 1985, upon his release he co-founded with Rawhi Mushtaha the Munazzamat al Jihad w'al-Dawa (Majd), an organization that worked, among others, to identify collaborators with Israel among the Palestinian population, which in 1987 became the Hamas "police". Sinwar's killing of suspected collaborators with Israel gained him the nickname "The Butcher of Khan Younis".
When asked about this nickname in The New Yorker'''s August 2024 profile on Sinwar, Basem Naim, a member of Hamas's leadership, said: "I think this is nonsense. That is the first time I have ever heard this." He and other Hamas leaders and supporters added that "Israelis require a great villain" and made one out of Sinwar for this reason. Academic expert on Hamas Khaled Hroub said Sinwar is "widely respected as a great organizer", and that claims of his alleged ruthlessness had not been proved. "Before October 7th, I hadn't heard all these terrible stories", Hroub said, adding: "I think some of these stories came about to complete this image of Sinwar the villain. He is decisive, that is true, and maybe people started to extrapolate from that and spice it up."
In 1988, Sinwar planned the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians whom he suspected of cooperating with Israel. He was arrested on February that year; during questioning he admitted to strangling one of the victims with his bare hands, suffocating another with a keffiyeh, shooting a third and choking and punching a fourth. He was sentenced to four life sentences in 1989. Sinwar regarded extracting confessions from collaborators as a righteous obligation. He told interrogators that one of them had even said "he realized he deserved to die." Sinwar persisted in targeting informants while in prison. Israeli authorities suspected him of ordering the beheadings of two suspected informants. Hamas operatives reportedly disposed of the victims' severed body parts by throwing them out of cell doors and telling guards to "take the dog's head."
Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist who has long been involved in prisoner-exchange negotiations and talks with Hamas leaders, cautioned that "All these Israeli experts and Shin Bet people and interrogators will tell you that they know exactly what Sinwar knows and believes. But they can't know. The dynamic of a meeting with someone who is your prisoner is obviously fraught."
Sinwar, respected for his resourcefulness among fellow inmates, attempted multiple escapes, including digging a hole in his cell floor to tunnel under the prison. He collaborated with Hamas leaders outside, smuggling cellphones into the prison and using visitors to relay messages. These often involved planning to kidnap Israeli soldiers for prisoner exchange. Years later, Sinwar would say, "for the prisoner, capturing an Israeli soldier is the best news in the universe, because he knows that a glimmer of hope has been opened for him."
Sinwar's time in prison was transformative, shaping his leadership qualities, according to Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official. Sinwar also mastered Hebrew through an online program and extensively studied Israeli news to comprehend his adversary better. He meticulously translated Hebrew autobiographies of former Shin Bet chiefs into Arabic, sharing them with fellow inmates to study counterterrorism tactics. He referred to himself as a "specialist in the Jewish people's history". Sinwar once remarked to supporters: "They wanted prison to be a grave for us, a mill to grind our will, determination and bodies. But, thank God, with our belief in our cause we turned the prison into sanctuaries of worship and academies for study." Ma'ariv reported that during his time in prison, Sinwar enrolled in fifteen courses through the Open University of Israel over a span of seven years, beginning in 1995. Most were in history, covering topics such as the history of the Jews in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods, the First Temple period, The Holocaust, and Zionism, along with a political science course on governance and Israeli democracy.
Hamas elects its leaders democratically within prison. Committees handle day-to-day decisions and punishments, while an elected "emir" and a high council oversee operations for limited terms. Sinwar alternated as emir with Rawhi Mushtaha, a confidant, during his imprisonment, serving as emir in 2004. Despite his leadership among prisoners, Sinwar was seen as a humble ascetic who shared cooking duties and other chores with junior inmates as well as making knafeh for fellow prisoners, in order to foster camaraderie.
In 2004, Sinwar, displaying symptoms like standing for prayer then falling and drifting in and out of consciousness, complained of neck pain. A prison dentist, Yuval Bitton, suspected a brain issue, possibly a stroke or abscess, urging urgent hospitalization. At Soroka Medical Center, Israeli surgeons removed a brain tumor that would have been fatal. Bitton emphasized that without surgery, the tumor would have burst. He recounts that a few days later, he visited Sinwar in the hospital with a prison officer. Sinwar asked the Muslim officer guarding him to thank the dentist and to explain to him the significance of his life-saving surgery in Islam and how he felt indebted to him for saving his life. Sinwar rarely interacted with Israeli prison authorities, but he began regular meetings with the dentist. Their discussions, unlike the dentist's usual chats with inmates, solely concerned Hamas ideology. Sinwar, who knew the Qu'ran by heart, articulated Hamas' beliefs, emphasizing its religious stance on the land. He dismissed the possibility of a two-state solution, asserting the land belonged to Muslims.
In a search of Sinwar's cell, guards confiscated a handwritten novel he completed at the end of 2004. The book, titled The Thorn and the Carnation, mirrored his life and the Palestinian resistance. The story revolves around Ahmed, a devout Gazan boy, navigating life under Israeli occupation during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. At least one copy was smuggled out, and a typed PDF was found in an online library by The New York Times. A different translation of the book title Al-Shawk wa’l Qurunful by a source well-versed in Arabic is Thorns and Carnations., Mondoweiss., Mondoweiss.
Sinwar's sole interview with an Israeli television outlet in 2005 saw him warning Israelis to "be scared" of Hamas's election victory. However, he privately conveyed that much depended on the Israeli government's actions. He said that, essentially, Hamas did not have maximalist aims and instead was seeking rights from the Israeli leadership.
Sinwar played a pivotal role in the negotiations for Gilad Shalit's release. Despite being part of the negotiation team, Sinwar opposed deals that did not include high-profile prisoners, known as "the impossibles", such as those serving multiple life sentences. Even after negotiations secured the release of over a thousand prisoners, including some high-profile ones, Sinwar remained adamant. This stance led to a rift in Hamas leadership, with Saleh al-Arouri, another prominent Hamas figure, recognizing the need for compromise. Despite efforts to persuade Sinwar, he persisted, even attempting to orchestrate a hunger strike involving 1,600 Hamas prisoners. His unwavering principles and refusal to compromise complicated negotiations. Eventually, Sinwar's authority waned as other Hamas leaders negotiated a deal without him, as Israeli authorities had put him in solitary confinement until the deal was reached. He was the most senior Palestinian prisoner released to Gaza among 1,026 others in the 2011 prisoner exchange for the soldier. In an interview with Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV, he expressed determination to continue efforts to free more prisoners, urging the Al-Qassam Brigades to kidnap soldiers for exchanges.
Following his release from prison, Sinwar was elected to a role within Hamas akin to defense minister.
In November 2012, during the 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar met Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani in Tehran and after his 2017 election as the group's leader in Gaza he cultivated closer cooperation between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
Torture of Mahmoud Ishtiwi