“You Europeans don’t understand Islam, so you can’t understand a man like Yahya Sinwar,” an Israeli analyst who prefers to remain anonymous tells ANSA. “But this time it wasn’t clear to us either what the head of Hamas in Gaza really had in mind.”
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The army remembers a phrase from him: “We will tear down the border with Israel and tear the hearts from their bodies.” “And they did it,” admits the analyst. However, the decision to take action right now remains an enigma, despite leading geopolitical experts having identified that it is in Vladimir Putin’s interest to shift the spotlight from the war in Ukraine to the Middle East. With substantial help from Iran. Many adjectives have been used for Sinwar, considered by Israel to be the number one person responsible for the October 7 attack in which more than 1,400 Israelis died: cruel, charismatic, manipulative, influential, resilient. A set of explosive characteristics mixed in the mind of this 61-year-old who remained in an Israeli prison for 22 years after being sentenced to several life sentences for the murder of three IDF soldiers and 12 Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the Jewish State. The agents of the Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, who interrogated him towards the end of the 1980s remember him well: «With bravado he took responsibility for the punishment inflicted on a suspected informer. He summoned the man’s brother, a Hamas member, and forced him to bury him alive by throwing dirt and earth on him until he suffocated. This is Yahya Sinwar.”
In 2006 he was released from prison with a thousand other Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, a prisoner of Hamas in Gaza for over 5 years. In the cell he had wasted no time, he studied the enemy. He learned Hebrew and read all the books available on the fathers of Israel, from Vladimir Jabotinsky to Menachem Begin, to Yitzhak Rabin. Once freed, he declared on TV: «We know that Israel has 200 nuclear warheads and the most advanced air force in the region. We do not have the ability to dismantle Israel.” It was a deception. Show weakness to shift attention away from yourself and strike at the right time. Mission that the Israelis recognize today as “accomplished”. Growing up in the most deprived area of Gaza, in Khan Younis, he appeared on the political scene with advice from his home turf to the founder of Hamas, the infamous Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. In 2017 he was elected leader of the group for all of Gaza, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who according to some in the Strip was promoted to be the head of Hamas abroad, in Qatar. Actually just got it out of the way. Then Sinwar, known as Abu Ibrahim, was re-elected in 2021. His violent methods against Palestinian opponents and spies contributed to making him a prominent leader: both loved and feared by his people. Israeli intelligence recalls that Sinwar’s nickname in Gaza is popular: ‘the butcher of Khan Yunis’, they call him. Even Hamas members are afraid of him. His rise within the Gaza ruling group is based precisely on a reputation for ruthlessness and violence, which he has taken root among the highest ranks of the faction. Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi warned after October 7: «This atrocious attack was orchestrated by Yahya Sinwar. He and his men are already dead.” Even Benjamin Netanyahu called him “a dead man walking”, comparing him to “a little Hitler”. Sinwar, however, is not Hitler, he is not a sociopath who wants to destroy a people. He wants to bend a nation, mock it, undermine its most precious asset: the myth of Israel’s security and infallibility. The priority of the Israelis. And it cannot be said that this is not already a victory, whether Sinwar is alive or dead. Arrested terrorists say their leader is hiding under al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. It is not excluded that they are bluffing too.
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