On Wednesday, 7th August, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas named its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar as its new commander following the death of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in a purported Israeli strike in Tehran. Sinwar is another high-profile name that Israel is watching. Sinwar is thought to be the mastermind of the October 7th strikes on Israel, and he has been hiding in Gaza since the conflict began, evading repeated Israeli attempts to eliminate him.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the selection of Commander Yahya Sinwar as the head of the political bureau of the movement, succeeding the martyr Commander Ismail Haniyeh, may Allah have mercy on him,” the Islamic Resistance Movement stated in its official statement.
Yahya Sinwar telah ditetapkan sebagai Ketua Biro Politik Hamas, menggantikan Ismail Haniyah.
— Dina Sulaeman (@dina_sulaeman) August 7, 2024
Padahal, Sinwar ada di Gaza, di medan tempur.
Artinya: tidak ada lagi negosiasi, semua keputusan ada di medan perang. pic.twitter.com/7Z2tU0oiPW
Soon after the new leader was named, terrorists in Gaza unleashed a barrage of missiles against Israeli troops in the conflict-torn area. Reports mention that Sinwar’s selection is particularly significant because he will represent the Hamas group at the peace talks, which have been ongoing for months to end the war and free 115 Israeli and foreign prisoners currently held in Gaza.
Sinwar is believed to be a hardcore extremist leader who sees Hamas as his everything. Sinwar, 61, was born in a refugee camp located near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and was appointed as Hamas’ leader in Gaza in 2017, after gathering an undesirable image among Palestinians as a ruthless enforcer and an unrelenting hater of Israel. He spent nearly half of his adulthood in Israeli prisons, including a 1988 conviction for murdering four Palestinians whom he claimed of cooperating with Israel.
This was even confirmed by his disowned son, Mosab Hassan Yousef. After Hamas attacked Israel, Yousef’s video went viral over the internet in which he could be heard saying that Sinwar had once mercilessly killed someone with a sink while he was in prison on the suspicion of collaborating with Israel. “This guy Sinwar, is hardcore. He beheaded someone in prison for suspicion of collaborating with Israel using the sink of the bathroom. Merciless. This is the guy who is in charge of Hamas in Gaza today,” Yousef had said. He also stated that Sinwar was under the ground under Al-Shifa hospital after Hamas had attacked Israel.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son of Senior Hamas Leader in the West Bank: Hamas Leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar Once Beheaded a Man Using a Bathroom Sink, Now He Hides Under Al-Shifa Hospital and Uses Patients as Human Shields #Hamas #Palestinians @MosabHasanYOSEF pic.twitter.com/dZ54rcsvUK
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 31, 2023
Notably, Sinwar’s household was among the few thousand Palestinian Arabs that were forced to leave during the conflicts that preceded Israel’s establishment, thus he carried strong feelings against Israel and joined Hamas as soon as it was founded in 1987. He was condemned to consecutive life sentences on charges of arranging the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers, as well as the murder of four Palestinians.
The newly appointed Hamas leader is also believed to have played a significant role in orchestrating the 7th October attack on Israel. After being released from Israeli jail in a prisoner swap in 2011, Sinwar believed that capturing Israeli troops was a tried-and-true strategy for freeing Palestinian prisoners in Israel. In December 2022, the terrorist commander warned a Gaza gathering that the Palestinian party Hamas would launch a storm of fighters and rockets against Israel, in a speech to supporters replete with crowd-pleasing exaggeration.
“We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tide,” he was quoted as saying.
A few months later, hundreds of Hamas terrorists burst through Israeli security and penetrated the southern portion of the nation, killing 1,200 people, kidnapping 250 captives, and shattering Israel’s image as an unbeatable foe. Sinwar and then military leader Mohammed Deif had already devised covert plans for the October 7th attack, the worst day in Israel’s 75-year history.
Sinwar made no public appearances following the October 7th attacks, but he did direct military operations alongside Deif and another commander. He oversaw discussions for prisoner-hostage swaps, presumably from underground bunkers in Gaza. According to liberated hostages, some of the abducted Israelis saw Sinwar in the tunnels in the days following the bombings.
For Israel, this selection reaffirms Hamas as a foe determined to its demise and is likely to reinforce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance that Israel must continue its war in Gaza to the end. The killing of Haniyeh marked a significant turning point in the ceasefire discussions, which had been stagnant for months. Now, the discussions do not seem to go well when Israel has to deal with one of its biggest foes, Sinwar.
