\n<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sinwar, who was born in the Gaza Strip in 1962, joined the movement at an early age.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Israel had arrested Sinwar three times. After his third arrest in 1988 he was sentenced to four life terms in prison.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In 2015, the US included Sinwar on its blacklist of “international terrorists”.<\/p>\n
Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces<\/a> in Rafah on 16 October 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n