Yahya Sinwar

Yahya Sinwar
يحيى السنوار
Sinwar in 2023
Hamas Chief in the Gaza Strip[1]
Assumed office
13 February 2017
Prime Minister
LeaderIsmail Haniyeh
Preceded byIsmail Haniyeh
Personal details
Born (1962-10-29) 29 October 1962 (age 61)
Khan Younis, Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip
Political partyHamas
Residence(s)Khan Younis, Khan Younis Governorate, Gaza Strip, State of Palestine[2]
EducationIslamic University of Gaza

Yahya Sinwar (Arabic: يحيى السنوار, romanizedYaḥyá al-Sanwār; born 29 October 1962), also spelled Yehya Sinwar,[3] is a Palestinian politician who has been leader of Hamas, the Sunni Islamist political and military organization that rules the Gaza Strip, since 2017.[4][5]

He was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-ruled Gaza in 1962 to a family who had been expelled or fled from Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[6] He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic Studies.[7]

For orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators in 1989, he was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel, of which he served 22 years until his release among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.[4] Sinwar was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.[8][9][10][11] In 2017, he was elected the leader of Hamas, and claimed to pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" to the Israeli occupation the following year, a position which was later abandoned.[12] He was re-elected as the leader of Hamas in 2021, and was subject to an assassination attempt by Israel that year. Sinwar is regarded as the mastermind behind the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.[13][14][15][16]

In September 2015, Sinwar was designated a terrorist by the United States government,[8] and Hamas and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have also been designated terrorist organisations by the United States, the European Union and other countries. In May 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for arrest warrants for Sinwar and several other Hamas and Israeli leaders as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine, citing charges of "extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention."[17]

  1. ^ "Israeli occupation's threats against Hamas officials reflect political impasse". Hamas. 25 September 2022. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  2. ^ Sabbagh, Dan (26 November 2023). "IDF messaging suggests Gaza truce unlikely to last much beyond Tuesday". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 May 2024. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  3. ^ "Israel air strikes kill 42 Palestinians, rockets fired from Gaza". Reuters. 15 May 2021. Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b Beaumont, Peter (13 February 2017). "Hamas elects hardliner Yahya Sinwar as its Gaza Strip chief". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017.
  5. ^ Balousha, Hazam; Booth, William (13 February 2017). "Hamas names hard-liner as its new political leader in Gaza". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Yahya Sinwar | Hamas Leader, Biography, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 28 January 2024. Archived from the original on 28 January 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  7. ^ "Who is the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar?". BBC News. 21 November 2023. Archived from the original on 9 January 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Terrorist Designations of Yahya Sinwar, Rawhi Mushtaha, and Muhammed Deif". United States Department of State. 8 September 2015. Archived from the original on 21 January 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  9. ^ "The Palestinians try to reconcile". The Economist. 5 October 2017. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  10. ^ Kottasová, Ivana; Shortell, David (7 December 2023). "Who is Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader Israel has called a 'dead man walking'". CNN. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  11. ^ Morris, Loveday; Balousha, Hazem (11 December 2023). "Who is Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar: From enforcer to Oct. 7 mastermind". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Economist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Vasilyeva, Nataliya (20 November 2023). "Mastermind behind Hamas attacks personally handling hostage negotiations". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Kingsley, Patrick; Barnes, Julian E.; Rasgon, Adam (12 May 2024). "Yahya Sinwar Helped Start the War in Gaza. Now He's Key to Its Endgame". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  17. ^ Kottasová, Ivana (20 May 2024). "EXCLUSIVE: ICC seeks arrest warrants against Sinwar and Netanyahu for war crimes over October 7 attack and Gaza war". CNN. Archived from the original on 20 May 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2024.

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