Yahya Sinwar «is a dead man». So he threatened Israeli military spokesman Daniel Lagari. But who is really the leader of Hamas?
23 years in prison
Born in 1962 in a refugee camp near Gaza, Sinwar attended the Islamic University of Gaza. He was arrested several times: the first in 1982 and the second in 1985, both for “subversive activities”. In 1988 he was sentenced to four life sentences, for murder and kidnapping, and spent 23 years in prison where he learned Hebrew. In the penitentiary he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, from which he recovered with surgery. In 2011 he was freed with a thousand other Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas militants in 2006 in a cross-border raid.
The ascent
After six years, in 2017, he became leader of Hamas, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh, currently in exile, and reconfirmed in this position in 2021. In the same year an Israeli raid destroyed his home, but he was not at home at that time. moment. Sinwar “represents the most radical and extreme line of Hamas”, the NY Times wrote after his election in 2017. Since 2015 he has been registered on the United States’ list of international terrorists. Sinwar took on a key role in building a bridge between Hamas and Qatar, from which the paramilitary organization has received millions of euros in recent years.
«Liberation is the strategic core of Hamas, and it concerns Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River», is one of his best-known phrases.
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