Yahya Sinwar was born on October 29, 1962 and grew up in the Southern Gaza refugee camp of Kahn Yunis, where he became part of a core group of highly devoted Muslim Brotherhood activists who created Hamas as a Brotherhood affiliate in 1987. In the 1980s as well, Sinwar helped establish the prototype for Al Majd (The Glory), the Hamas military and intelligence wing which later became known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. (Sinwar’s brother Muhammad became a senior member of that wing.) According to The Clarion Project, Sinwar during the Eighties developed a reputation for being “ruthless and extremist even by Hamas standards,” and “was particularly keen on punishing ‘morality’ offenders and killing Palestinians he suspected of collaborating with Israel.” Indeed, he reportedly killed a number of them with his bare hands.

In Khan Yunis, Sinwar formed a lasting friendship with Mohammed Deif, who not only serves today as chief commander of the aforementioned al-Qassam Brigades, but also has been Israel’s “most wanted” terrorist since the late 1990s due to his involvement in such crimes as kidnapping Israeli soldiers, dispatching suicide bombers, and planting explosives on buses.

In 1988 Israeli authorities arrested Sinwar and sentenced him to four life terms in prison for his terrorist activities against Israel and his role in murdering suspected Palestinian collaborators. At one point during his incarceration, Sinwar was successfully treated for a brain tumor in an Israeli hospital.

In 2011 Sinwar was set free as part of a deal in which Israel exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in return for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas had been holding captive for more than five years.

During the 2014 military conflict known as Operation Protective Edge, where Israel sought to degrade and destroy Hamas’s military and terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, Sinwar served as one of the terror group’s senior military leaders. When a cease-fire was eventually being negotiated, he pressed Hamas to exact additional concessions from Israel as prerequisites for a pause in the fighting.

In 2015, the U.S. government placed Sinwar on its terrorism blacklist.

According to a February 13, 2017 New York Times report: “Mr. Sinwar is believed to have been behind the detention, torture and killing of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, who was initially held for embezzlement in 2015. Months later he [Ishtiwi] was killed, accused of committing ‘moral crimes’ — amid suspicions of gay sex — that Mr. Sinwar apparently feared could lead to extortion and compromise Hamas.”

In a secret election which was held in February 2017, Sinwar was named to replace Ismail Haniyeh as the head of Hamas’s Gaza operations. The Clarion Project reported that Sinwar, in his acceptance speech following his electoral triumph, “spoke of resorting to all measures to free Hamas prisoners from Israeli jails, recognized as code words for the green light to kidnap Israeli civilian and soldiers to use as bargaining chips.” Sinwar’s victory, said Tel Aviv University political science professor Shaul Mishal, “indicates that Hamas’s military wing, which is more hardline and extreme than the political leadership, has taken charge of an important position in Hamas’s leadership.”

According to a February 2017 report in The Guardian: “Sinwar’s outlook … is far more narrowly focused on Gaza than [Khaled] Meshal’s or other members of the old guard in Hamas’s political leadership, who are concerned with the long-running national unity talks with Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in the West Bank. Since his release by Israel in 2011, Sinwar has built up his power in the secretive military wing and is believed to have ordered the execution of a top rival last year in a power struggle.”

Over the years, Sinwar cultivated a reputation as a fanatical, uncompromising zealot for the cause of Islamic supremacy and the annihilation of the Jews. For example, the Israeli newspaper Haartez reported that “Palestinians who have met with Sinwar characterize him … as someone who speaks in apocalyptic terms about perpetual war with Israel.” Similarly, the website IsraelStreet.org portrayed Sinwar as someone known for his “unpredictable bursts of violence that have caused all of those in Gaza, including Hamas members, to fear him.” And Yaron Blum, a former senior official in the Israeli domestic intelligence agency known as Shin Bet, described Sinwar as follows: “He is charismatic, he is not corrupt, he is modest and he advocates action…. He will do all he can to carry out terror attacks.”

Kobi Michael, an analyst and former head of the Palestinian Desk at Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs, characterized Sinwar as a “bitter enemy” of the Egyptians, an advocate of cooperation with the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Sinai, and an ally of Iran.

In early May 2018, Sinwar encouraged the hordes of Gazan demonstrators who, since March 30, had been protesting the imminent relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that was slated to occur on May 14, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s creation as a sovereign state. Moreover, Sinwar encouraged the demonstrators to storm through the fence separating Gaza from Israel, even if they had to lose their lives in the process. “We would rather die as martyrs than die out of oppression and humiliation,” he told a group of hundreds of young Gazans. “We are ready to die, and tens of thousands will die with us.” The next day, Sinwar asked: “What’s the problem with hundreds of thousands of people parading through a fence that’s not a border? What’s the problem with an influx like that?”

Sinwar was the mastermind of the infamous October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel, in which Hamas fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state, while dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the Israeli border in a number of locations by air, land and sea. Hamas dubbed this barbaric assault as “Operation Al-Aqsa Deluge,” or “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”

The October 7th attack had been planned in conjunction with officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with agents of three other Iran-sponsored terrorist groups. “In an assault of startling breadth,” reported CBS News, “Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles from the Gaza border. In some places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response.” By October 8, at least 600 Israelis had been killed and 1,800 wounded, making it the bloodiest day Jews had experienced since the Holocaust. Moreover, Hamas took more than 240 Israelis hostage, including dozens who were American citizens, and moved them to the Gaza Strip. The terrorists also paraded Israelis’ mutilated bodies in Gaza, to cheering crowds of Palestinians. By October 19, the official casualty toll in Israel had reached more than 1,400 dead (including at least 32 Americans) and 4,500 injured.

Israel responded to the atrocities of October 7th by launching a military incursion into northern Gaza, with the aim of dismantling Hamas and its infrastructure.

On October 16, 2024, Sinwar was killed in a chance encounter with IDF infantry and armored units. Said the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) in a joint statement:

“The IDF and ISA confirm that after a year-long pursuit, yesterday (Wednesday), October 16, 2024, IDF soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip. Yahya Sinwar planned and executed the October 7th Massacre, promoted his murderous ideology both before and during the war, and was responsible for the murder and abduction of many Israelis.

“Yahya Sinwar was eliminated after hiding for the past year behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip. The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination.

“In recent weeks, IDF and ISA forces, under the command of the Southern Command, have been operating in the southern Gaza Strip, following IDF and ISA intelligence that indicated the suspected locations of senior members of Hamas. ​IDF soldiers of the 828th Brigade (Bislach) operating in the area identified and eliminated three terrorists. After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.”

Further Reading: “Why Hamas’ New Leader in Gaza is More Evil Than the Last One” (Clarion Project, 2-14-2017); “Hamas Elects Convicted Murderer Yahya Sinwar As Gaza Chief” (Times of Israel, 2-13-2017); “As Gaza Teeters on Precipice, a Hamas Leader Speaks Out” (NY Times, May 10, 2018); “Election of New Hamas Gaza Strip Leader Increases Fears of Confrontation” (The Guardian, 2-13-2017); “Hamas Appoints Hard-Line Militant as Gaza Leader” (NY Times, 2-13-2017); “Hamas’ New Gaza Leader Described as Extremist Even for the Group” (Haaretz.com, 2-14-2017); “10 Facts To Know About The New Leader of Hamas” (IsraelStreet.org, 2-13-2017).