Yahya Sinwar was the architect of the 7 October attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. He was also one of Israel’s top targets from that day on.
Sinwar had been the leader of Hamas in Gaza, but became the overall head of Hamas following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July this year.
Sinwar, who was born in the Gaza Strip in 1962, joined the movement at an early age.
He founded Hamas’s security service, known as Majd, which manages internal security matters, investigates suspected Israeli agents, and tracks down Israeli intelligence and security services officers.
Israel had arrested Sinwar three times. After his third arrest in 1988 he was sentenced to four life terms in prison.
However, he was among 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners released by Israel in exchange for an Israeli soldier held captive for over five years by Hamas.
Sinwar returned to his position as a prominent leader in Hamas and was appointed head of the group’s political bureau in the Gaza Strip in 2017.
In 2015, the US included Sinwar on its blacklist of “international terrorists”.
Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in Rafah on 16 October 2024.
