When the Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, leaving 1,200 dead and taking around 250 hostages, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu promised to retaliate against the attack and named a key figure in the conflict as the main target: Yahya Sinwarthe leader of Hamas.
Sinwar, it seems, was killed last Wednesday 16th. The Israeli Army claims to have killed the man considered the intellectual mentor on October 7th, shortly after a clash in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The official radio of the Israeli military limited itself to saying, this Thursday the 17th, that Yahya Sinwar had been “eliminated”. A message in the same tone was released by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, known as Kan, which is state-owned. Hamas, however, has not yet commented on the alleged death.
Sinwar, a 62-year-old Palestinian, has been on Hamas’ list of most important figures for some time, but gained even more strength after the death of the group’s former political president, Ismail Haniya, last July. That’s when Sinwar’s chance was pointed out become the political leader of the group.
Few people knew so well the merits and possible weaknesses of Israel’s forces. Result of having spent 22 years imprisoned in Israeli territory. He was first arrested in 1982 for subversive activities, but was released from prison within a short time. It was at this opportunity that Sinwar created a group that became known as Majd (Munazzamat al Jihad wál-Dawa), which served to identify Israeli spies in Palestine.
Years later, he was unable to escape conviction after planning the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers and Palestinians who contributed to Israel. Because of this, he was sentenced to life in prison in 1989. He was released from prison in 2011, after a complex prisoner exchange carried out by Israel and Hamas.
Years passed and Sinwar’s political power intensified within Hamas. Thus, in 2017, he was chosen as the group’s new leader in the Gaza Strip. Ascension to the position marked a new phase in relations with Israel, making Hamas a group more prone to direct confrontation with Israeli forces.
Suspicions about his death are not exactly new. In 2021, when Israel carried out an air strike that hit his home, Sinwar went public and challenged Israeli forces to kill him afterwards. Nothing, however, happened.
Sinwar’s position in the conflict was strategic, since, in practice, he was the one who determined whether negotiations on hostage release would progress or not. For Israel, the death of Hamas’ top leadership in the Gaza Strip could prove to be the necessary trump card to declare itself the winner of the war.
