Yahya Sinwar was the architect of the 7 October assaults, wherein about 1,200 individuals had been killed and 251 others taken again to Gaza as hostages. He was additionally certainly one of Israel’s prime targets from that day on.
Sinwar had been the chief of Hamas in Gaza, however turned the general head of Hamas following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July this yr.
Sinwar, who was born within the Gaza Strip in 1962, joined the motion at an early age.
He based Hamas’s safety service, often called Majd, which manages inner safety issues, investigates suspected Israeli brokers, and tracks down Israeli intelligence and safety companies officers.
Israel had arrested Sinwar 3 times. After his third arrest in 1988 he was sentenced to 4 life phrases in jail.
Nevertheless, he was amongst 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners launched by Israel in alternate for an Israeli soldier held captive for over 5 years by Hamas.
Sinwar returned to his place as a distinguished chief in Hamas and was appointed head of the group’s political bureau within the Gaza Strip in 2017.
In 2015, the US included Sinwar on its blacklist of “worldwide terrorists”.
Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in Rafah on 16 October 2024.