Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to locate and eliminate Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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“We will find Sinwar and eliminate him,” he told a news conference on Saturday as his troops continued their incursions into the northern Palestinian enclave.
Since the terrorist group’s attacks began on October 7, Israel has ensured that both the head and the leader of the militia’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif, were the main targets of its counteroffensive and would not stop until they were found.
Sinwar was a “dead man walking,” the Israeli army said at the time.
The Israeli press assures that both Palestinian terrorists are hiding in the extensive network of tunnels built throughout the enclave, protected from the bombings that hit their operational centers every day.
Yahya Ibrahim Sinwar was born in a refugee camp in Gaza in 1962. He completed his initial studies in the Khan Yunis camp and years later graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza.
He joined Hamas after its founding in 1987 and quickly gained a reputation for brutality, helping to establish the internal security force known as the Maid.
He was arrested three times: first in 1982, when he spent four months under Israeli control, and then in 1985, when he served an eightmonth prison sentence for helping to found the Majd unit.
In the last case, Israel sentenced him to four life sentences in 1988 for his role in the murder of Israeli troops and Palestinian collaborators. These more than twenty years did not stop him from continuing his duties from afar, maintaining his prestige within Hamas and even learning Hebrew, the language of his enemies.
In 2011, Sinwar was released in a prisoner swap along with 1,000 other Palestinians in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by the militia for five years. Geopolitical analyst Michael Horowitz explained that these years behind bars have given him a “particularly sensitive” meaning that is explained in his current fight for the release of his prisoners.
After his return to Gaza, Sinwar remained at the head of Hamas, which is why the United States added him to its list of international terrorists in 2015.
His popularity and acceptance continued to grow and on February 13, 2017, he was elected head of the group’s political office.
In the past, he has been open to using diplomatic channels to “win our rights” and has therefore sought to improve relations with Egypt and Fatah, the faction that controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. He also led a campaign to pressure Israel to lift the blockade of the enclave.
However, in addition to these actions, the group also trained to carry out its attacks and, according to Portal, the October 7 offensive, which took years to carry out.
Israel has vowed to eliminate a second Hamas leader in Gaza, Mohammed Deif.
Deif was one of the first to join the armed group right from the start. Like Sinwar, he was arrested by Israel on several occasions and in one of these cases he initiated plans to create the famous Izz alDin AlQassam Brigade, which emerged as a military formation aimed at capturing Israeli soldiers for future negotiations.
He was also responsible for the construction of the extensive network of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels that cross the Gaza Strip and are located approximately 80 meters underground. This allowed Hamas to increase its incursions into Israeli territory and also increase its rocket attacks.
His release from prison was not due to negotiations or exchanges, but rather to his own ploy to escape during the Second Intifada and to remain discreet ever since. Some claim that part of his strategy is to change his location on a daily basis without exception, which has cost him one of his most famous nicknames: “The Guest.”
Despite their efforts, the IDF managed to find him in 2022, but failed in their attempt to eliminate him. However, they state that “the fighter with 9 lives” has lost a foot and a hand and is suffering from communication difficulties.