Who was the Hamas leader? Reported architect of October 7 massacre killed in Gaza – The Irish Times

Yahya Sinwar was one of Hamas’s most influential leaders, wielding outsized power while remaining largely hidden in tunnels under Gaza.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that he had been killed in Gaza.

Long considered a planner of Hamas’s military strategy in Gaza, Sinwar consolidated his power when he was elected in August to also run the group’s political office. He was elevated to that post after the assassination of the group’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

Formative years

Sinwar was born in Gaza in 1962 to a family that fled his home along with several hundred thousand other Palestinian Arabs who fled or were forced to flee during the wars surrounding the creation of the state of Israel. This displacement had a major influence on his decision to join Hamas in the 1980s.

Sinwar had been recruited by Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who made him head of an internal security unit known as Al Majd. His job was to track down and punish those suspected of violating Islamic moral laws or collaborating with the Israeli occupiers, a position that eventually got him into trouble with the Israeli authorities.

( Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead, says Israel’s foreign ministerOpens in a new window )

Life in prison

Sinwar was jailed in 1988 for the murder of four Palestinians whom he accused of apostasy or collaboration with Israel, Israeli court records show. He spent more than twenty years in prison in Israel, where he learned Hebrew and developed an understanding of Israeli culture and society.

While in prison, Sinwar took advantage of an online university program and devoured Israeli news.

Sinwar once told an Italian journalist that prison is a melting pot. “Prison builds you,” he said, adding that it gave him time to think about what he believed in and the price he would be willing to pay for it.

He attempted to escape from custody several times, once digging a hole in the floor of his cell in the hope of tunneling under the prison and exiting through the visitors center. And he found ways to work together against Israel with Hamas leaders on the outside, managing to smuggle cellphones into the prison and using lawyers and visitors to get out messages, including about finding ways to kidnap Israeli soldiers to exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

These activities foreshadowed the approach he would take years later in planning the October 7 attack on Israel.

After prison

When he was released from Israeli prison in 2011 after a prisoner swap, Sinwar said the capture of Israeli soldiers, after years of failed negotiations, was the proven tactic to free Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

After his release from prison, Sinwar married and had children. He said little publicly about his family, but once noted that “the first words my son spoke were ‘father’, ‘mother’ and ‘drone’.”

His tough stance suggested he was not keen on a ceasefire deal with Israel that would end the fighting in Gaza and lead to the return of hostages, living and dead, taken from Israel and still being held are being held in Gaza.

What does his death mean for the ceasefire negotiations?

Sinwar’s death raises hopes for an end to the conflict. Both Sinwar and the Israeli government had refused to compromise during months of ceasefire negotiations.

His death could push Hamas to agree to some of Israel’s demands — or give Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, a symbolic victory that would give him the political cover he needs to soften his own negotiating position.

Since the war began, most ceasefire talks have taken place in Egypt and Qatar. But Sinwar still played a leading role, even from his hideout in Gaza. During the talks, Sinwar’s agreement was required by Hamas negotiators before agreeing to any concessions, officials familiar with the talks said.

Although Hamas officials have previously emphasized that Sinwar did not have the final say in the group’s decisions, his leadership role in Gaza and his powerful personality gave him an outsize importance in the way Hamas operates, according to allies and enemies alike.

“No decision can be made without consulting Sinwar,” said Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Hamas member and political analyst who befriended Sinwar when they were both imprisoned in Israel in the 1990s and 2000s. “Sinwar is no ordinary leader. He is a powerful person and an architect of events,” al-Awawdeh added. – This article originally appeared in the New York Times