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Who is Yahya Sinwar? What we know about the death of the Hamas leader

Who is Yahya Sinwar? What we know about the death of the Hamas leader

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This story has been updated with new information.

Yahya Sinwar, the elusive Hamas leader believed to be the mastermind behind the militant group’s brutal attack on Israel last year, has died.

Israel said Thursday it killed Sinwar during a military operation in Gaza.

Hamas has not yet commented and it was not immediately clear what impact Sinwar’s death will have on the war between Israel and Hamas.

Here’s what we know:

What’s new on the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar?

The Israel Defense Forces said it killed three Hamas militants in a military operation in Gaza on Thursday and is investigating whether one of them was Sinwar.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel was conducting DNA tests on the victim’s body to determine whether it was Sinwar.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz later confirmed Sinwar’s death.

“This is a significant and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the Iranian-led axis of evil of radical Islam,” Katz said in a statement.

A second US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sinwar appeared to have been killed in a mortar attack.

Katz said Sinwar’s death “opens the possibility” for the immediate release of the remaining hostages captured in last year’s Hamas attack on Israel and “paves the way for change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza.” “

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Who is Yahya Sinwar?

Sinwar was the leader of Hamas, which launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. He was considered one of the architects of the attack that sparked a bloody war between Israel and Hamas that has resulted in the deaths of more than 42,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Sinwar, 61, was in charge of daily operations in Gaza before Hamas’ October 7 attack. He was declared Hamas’ political leader after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a bomb hidden in his Tehran guesthouse in July.

Dubbed “The Face of Evil” by Israel, Sinwar was known for operating in secret, constantly moving and using trusted messengers for non-digital communications, three Hamas officials and a regional official told Reuters. He had not been seen in public since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and was believed to be hiding in the network of tunnels where Hamas hid weapons, fighters and hostages.

Sinwar played a key role in the failed negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release agreement. He is Hamas’ sole decision-maker, three Hamas sources told Reuters. The negotiators waited for days for answers, which were filtered through a secret messenger chain.

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Sinwar’s early years

Sinwar was born in 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip. Before the war, he sometimes talked about his early life in Gaza during decades of Israeli occupation. He once said his mother made clothes from empty UN food aid bags, Gaza resident Wissam Ibrahim told Reuters.

In a semi-autobiographical novel written in prison, Sinwar described scenes of troops razing Palestinian homes “like a monster crushing the bones of its prey” before Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

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Sinwar was a ruthless enforcer tasked with punishing Palestinians suspected of informing for Israel. Sinwar then made a name for himself as a prison warden and became a street hero after serving a 22-year Israeli prison sentence for being responsible for the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians. He then quickly rose to the top of Hamas.

He became a member of Hamas shortly after its founding in the 1980s and adopted its radical Islamist ideology, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in historic Palestine and rejects the existence of Israel.

He was arrested by Israel in the late 1980s for allegedly orchestrating the murder of two Israeli soldiers and several other Palestinians whom he accused of being collaborators. He was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel and had spent more time of his life in prison than out of prison when he was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap that saw Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas for five years was held, was released.

Sinwar is believed to have helped set up Hamas’s internal security service, known as Maid, whose mission includes finding and executing suspected Palestinian collaborators.

Sinwar was a “murderous terrorist” and an “obstacle” in the ceasefire negotiations

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who traveled to Germany with President Joe Biden, called the news of Sinwar’s death a “very significant day in the Middle East.”

“This is a murderous terrorist who is responsible for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One. “He has a lot of blood on his hands – Israeli blood, American blood, Palestinian blood. And the world is better now that he’s gone.”

Sinwar is “a massive obstacle” to peace in Gaza and efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release agreement, Sullivan said.

“At various points along the way, Sinwar was more interested in causing mayhem, mayhem and death than actually trying to reach a ceasefire and hostage-taking agreement,” Sullivan said. “We have seen time and time again a moment in which he, in particular, stood in the way of progress on the ceasefire and hostage-taking agreement.”

With his death, the US will redouble its efforts to end the war, secure the release of the remaining hostages and find a path forward that will allow the people of Gaza to “rebuild their lives and their hopes without war and freedom.” to realize”. “The brutal grip of Hamas,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Contributors: Reuters; USA TODAY’s Kim Hjelmgaard and Tom Vanden Brook.

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.