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Yahya Sinwar

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Yahya Sinwar
يحيى السنوار
Sinwar in 2013
Hamas Chief in the Gaza Strip[1]
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 February 2017
LeaderIsmail Haniyeh
Preceded byIsmail Haniyeh
Personal details
Born1962 (age 61–62)
Khan Yunis, Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip
(present-day Palestinian territories)
Political partyHamas
EducationIslamic University of Gaza

Yahya Sinwar (Template:Lang-ar, born 1962, also spelled Yehya Sinwar[2]) is the current Palestinian leader of the organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, having taken over from Ismail Haniyeh in February 2017.[3][4] He was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.[5] He is the second most powerful figure within Hamas.[6]

Born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1962, when the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule, where Sinwar spent his early years. His family were expelled or fled from Al-Majdal Asqalan (Ashkelon) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic Studies.

Orchestrating 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 with an Israeli soldier.[3] In 2017, he was elected as Hamas' leader, and claimed to pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" the following year, a position which was later abandoned.[7] He was re-elected as Hamas leader in 2021, and was subject to an assassination attempt by Israel that year.

In September 2015, Sinwar was designated a terrorist by the United States government,[5] 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 and organisations[by whom?].

Early life

Sinwar was born Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar in 1962, in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, when the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule, where he spent his early years. His family were expelled or fled from Al-Majdal Asqalan (Ashkelon) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. After he graduated from high school at Khan Yunis Secondary School for Boys, he went on to the Islamic University of Gaza where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic Studies.[8][9]

Career

Sinwar was first arrested in 1982 for subversive activities and he served several months in the Far'a prison where he met other Palestinian activists, including Salah Shehade, and dedicated himself to the Palestinian cause.[8] Arrested again in 1985,[4] upon his release he together with Rawhi Mushtaha co-founded the Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa (Majd) security organisation, which worked to, inter alia, identify Israeli spies in the Palestinian movement,[3] and which in 1987 became the "police" of Hamas.[8]

In 1988, he masterminded the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinian whom he suspected cooperating with Israel, for which he was arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to four life sentences in 1989.[4][5] He tried to escape several times but was always caught. In 2008 while serving a prison sentence in Israel he was operated on to remove a tumor in his brain to save his life.[9][10] Sinwar served 22 years of his sentence, and was the most senior Palestinian prisoner freed among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.[3][11]

In February 2017 Sinwar was secretly elected Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, taking over from Ismail Haniyeh. In March, he established a Hamas controlled administrative committee for the Gaza Strip, which meant that he opposed any power sharing with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Sinwar rejects any reconciliation with Israel.[3] He has called on militants to capture more Israeli soldiers.[5] In September 2017, a new round of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority began in Egypt, and Sinwar agreed to dissolve the Hamas administrative committee for Gaza.[12] More recently he has silenced hard-line voices in Gaza overruling the use of tunnels that Muhammad Deif wanted to use to sneak fighters into Israel before they were shut down by new classified Israeli technology in 2017.[7]

On 16 May 2018, in an unexpected announcement on Al Jazeera, Sinwar stated that Hamas would pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" opening the possibility that Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by many countries, may play a role in negotiations with Israel.[7] A week earlier he had encouraged Gazans to breach the Israeli siege, saying "We would rather die as martyrs than die out of oppression and humiliation", and adding, "We are ready to die, and tens of thousands will die with us."[13]

In March 2021, he was elected to a second four-year term as the head of Hamas Gaza branch in an election held in secret. He is the highest-ranking Hamas official in Gaza and Gaza's de facto ruler, as well as the second most powerful member of Hamas after Haniyeh.[14]

On 15 May 2021, an Israeli airstrike was reported to have hit the home of the Hamas leader, there were no immediate details of any deaths or injured. The strike took place in the Khan Yunis region of southern Gaza in the midst of evergrowing tension between Israelis and Palestinians.[15] However, in the week that followed, he appeared publicly at least four times. The most obvious and daring thereof was in a press conference on 27 May 2021, when he mentioned (on air) that he will go home after the press conference (on foot), and invited the Israeli Minister of defense to take the decision to assassinate him in the following 60 minutes, until he reaches his home. Sinwar spent the next hour wandering in Gaza streets and having selfie photos with the public.[16]

Health

On 1 December 2020, Sinwar tested positive for COVID-19 and was reportedly following the advice of health authorities and taking precautionary measures. A spokesman for the group also said that he was in "good health and [...] pursuing his duties as usual."[17]

References

  1. ^ "Israeli occupation's threats against Hamas officials reflect political impasse". Hamas. 25 September 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  2. ^ "Israel air strikes kill 42 Palestinians, rockets fired from Gaza". Reuters. 15 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e 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.
  4. ^ a b c 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.
  5. ^ a b c d "Terrorist Designations of Yahya Sinwar, Rawhi Mushtaha, and Muhammed Deif". United States Department of State. 8 September 2015.
  6. ^ "The Palestinians try to reconcile". The Economist. 5 October 2017.
  7. ^ a b c "The leader of Hamas in Gaza is the most influential man in Palestine". The Economist. 26 May 2018.
  8. ^ a b c نبذة عن حياة الأسير يحيى السنوار مؤسس الجهاز الأمني لحركة المقاومة الإسلامية حماس [About the life of the prisoner Yahya Sinwar founder of the security apparatus of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas] (in Arabic). Palestinian Information Center. 15 April 2010. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016.
  9. ^ a b "Yehya Ibrahim Sinwar". Ezzedeen AL-Qassam Brigades. Archived from the original on 2 September 2016.
  10. ^ قائد حماس بالسجون يحيى السنوار... خطط للهرب اكثر من مرة وعوقب بالعزل [Imprisoned Hamas leader Yehia Sinwar ... planned to escape more than once and was punished with solitary]. Maan News Agency. 19 October 2011. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017.
  11. ^ editorial, TV7 news (2 December 2020). "Hamas leader tests positive for coronavirus". TV7 Israel News.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Hamas agrees to talks with Fatah, hold elections". www.aljazeera.com.
  13. ^ Halbfinger, David M.; Abuheweila, Iyad (10 May 2018). "As Gaza Teeters on Precipice, a Hamas Leader Speaks Out". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  14. ^ "Yahya Sinwar". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  15. ^ Gross, Judah Ari. "Home of Hamas leader in Gaza said hit by Israeli strike". www.timesofisrael.com.
  16. ^ محلل إسرائيلي: أي عار هذا الذي نعيشه.. السنوار تجول في شوارع غزة وتحدى إسرائيل باغتياله ورسائله بكل اتجاه [Israeli analyst: What shame is this what we live in .. Sinwar wandered in the streets of Gaza and challenged Israel by assassinating him and his messages in every direction]. Aljazeera.net. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  17. ^ Almughrabi, Nidal (1 December 2020). Heller, Jeffrey; Ricahrdson, Alex (eds.). "Hamas Gaza chief tests positive for COVID-19, spokesman says". Reuters. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
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