Yahya Sinwar

Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (Arabic: يحيى إبراهيم حسن السنوار, romanized: Yaḥyá Ibrāhīm Ḥasan as-Sinwār; 29 October 1962 – 16 October 2024) was a Palestinian politician and militant. He served as the fourth chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024, and as the second leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from February 2017. He succeeded Ismail Haniyeh in both roles.

Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-occupied Gaza in 1962 to a family who had been expelled or fled from Majdal 'Asqalan during the 1948 Palestine War. He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies. In 1989, Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences in Israel for orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators. He spent 22 years in prison until his release among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. During his time in prison, Sinwar continued to coordinate the military activities of Hamas. Sinwar was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.

In 2017, Sinwar was elected as the leader of Hamas in Gaza and claimed to pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" the following year, supporting the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, though he was also reported to have been dedicated to eradicating Israel and was said to have seen military confrontation as the only path to "liberating Palestine", saying that this would be achieved "by force, not negotiations". He also developed strong ties with Iran. Re-elected as Hamas leader in 2021, Sinwar survived an assassination attempt by Israel that same year. He was widely regarded as the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks in 2023, which was followed by the Gaza war that spilled over to other parts of the Middle East. He was killed in a clash with the Israel Defense Forces in October 2024.

In September 2015 Sinwar was specifically designated a terrorist by the United States government. In May 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Sinwar for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.