Yahya Sinwar, 63, is almost never seen smiling. His short, gray hair and wellgroomed beard give the impression of a quiet person who is careful to take care of himself. But soon the look shows a permanent resentment.
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He is the main leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ranks second in the group’s hierarchy. He is second only to General Leader Ismail Haniya, who lives between Qatar and Turkey. Sinwar was the mastermind of the October 7 attacks, in which he displayed another trait for the Israeli authorities in addition to the cruelty of his actions: ingratitude.
According to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) report, Sinwar spent around 22 years in prison in Israel between his arrest and his release.
He has been considered a terrorist in the United States since 2015 and was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, which was under Egyptian control at the time. He spent his childhood there, fueled by the hatred of Israel imposed by the regime of dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser (19581970).
He attended Khan Younis Secondary School, which is for boys, and then enrolled at the Islamic University of Gaza. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Arabic studies. But his greatest school was prison.
From the 1980s onwards, the ideology disguised its desire to kill. In the 1980s, he became a spy for the Palestinians, whom he viewed as traitors and allies of Israel.
And he added to Nasser’s secular revolt and his panArabism the religious and obsessive character of his rejection of Israel. The desire to destroy Israel was there every time he breathed. To a normal person, his dreams were nightmares of destruction and death.
Four life sentences
It didn’t take long for him to rise through the hierarchy and command cells of the group that carried out attacks on Israeli civilians.
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Even before the founding of Hamas in 1987. He was arrested in 1982 for subversion and two years later he met the leader of the IzzadDin alQassam militias, Salah Shehada, who was also imprisoned at the time.
In 1989, he was sentenced to four life sentences for organizing attacks that killed two Israeli soldiers and murdered four Palestinians suspected of treason. Always tried, never managed to escape.
I learned of Shehada’s death when he was released as part of an Israeli intelligence operation back in 2002.
And in 2011, Sinwar left prison only because he was among 1,026 prisoners exchanged for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas five years earlier.
Sinwar had experienced moments of panic in prison. Not exactly because of the treatment of the prison guards. But because of a brain tumor that gave him severe headaches. Then he had to have surgery.
When he was taken to a stateoftheart hospital in Israel, Israeli doctors operated on him around 2006, saving his life, Avi Issacharoff, an Israeli journalist specializing in Palestinian affairs, told Al Jazeera.
“Sinwar underwent surgery and Israeli doctors removed the tumor from his head,” confirms André Lajst, president of the organization StandWithUs Brasil. By this time, the extremist had already learned Hebrew and was more familiar with the country’s culture. According to Lajst, as he left the hospital, he said to the doctors: “Everyone (thanks).”
Orit Adato, former Israeli prison commissioner, spoke to The Times of Israel about the operation. For them, the Sinwar operation also contradicts the theory that Israel treats Palestinian prisoners badly.
“If they say they are not being treated well, I urge you and others to call a particular person, Yahya Sinwar, who is alive today only because the operation saved her life,” he said.
Return to the Gaza Strip
Lajst maintains that Israel’s interrogations are harsh but do not violate international law.
When he left prison and returned to Gaza, he resumed his conspiratorial activities against Gaza Israel. Out of political ambition, he aspired to lead the group, which he achieved in 2017.
Sinwar even outlined a more peaceful stance for Hamas. In September 2017, in a new round of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Egypt, the radicals agreed to disband the Hamas management committee in Gaza.
The terrorist group had taken control of the region years earlier in an armed coup against the AP.
However, Sinwar did not follow through on his promise. After declaring in 2018 that Hamas would pursue peaceful resistance, the following day she called on its followers to continue terrorist acts against Israel.
The October 7 attacks themselves were another example of this leader’s treacherous side.
For two years, since Sinwar’s house was bombed (and he was not hit), Hamas stopped attacking Israel. This gave the impression that the group wanted a ceasefire.
Once the IDF was in hiding, it was possible to carry out the surprise attack that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.
But the country that once saved Sinwar now wants him at any cost. By defining him as the architect of the attacks, Military spokesman Israeli Lt. Col. Richard Hecht recently called Sinwar a “dead man walking.” In this sense, the operation was wellintentioned but not successful. Sinwar’s hatred is still an incurable tumor.