Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar is unrepentant concerning the Oct 7 assaults a yr in the past, individuals involved with him say, regardless of unleashing an Israeli invasion that has killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians, laid waste to his Gaza homeland and rained destruction on ally Hezbollah.
For Sinwar, 62, architect of the Hamas cross-border raids that turned the deadliest day in Israel’s historical past, armed wrestle stays the one solution to pressure the creation of a Palestinian nation, 4 Palestinian officers and two sources from governments within the Center East stated.
The Oct 7, 2023, assaults killed 1,200 individuals, primarily civilians, and captured 250 hostages, in keeping with Israeli tallies, within the deadliest day for Jews for the reason that Holocaust.
Israel responded by launching a large offensive, killing 41,600 individuals and displacing 1.9 million, in keeping with Palestinian well being authorities and figures from the United Nations.
Now the battle has unfold to Lebanon, with Israel closely degrading Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, together with killing most of its management. Hamas patron Tehran is susceptible to being pulled into open struggle with Israel.
Sinwar has drawn Iran and its total “Axis of Resistance” – comprising Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iraqi militias – into battle with Israel, stated Hassan Hassan, an writer and researcher on Islamic teams.
“We’re seeing now the ripple results of Oct 7 Sinwar’s gamble did not work,” Hassan stated, suggesting that the Axis of Resistance could by no means recuperate.
“What Israel did to Hezbollah in two weeks is nearly equal to an entire yr of degrading Hamas in Gaza. With Hezbollah, three layers of management have been eradicated, its navy command has been decimated, and its necessary chief Hassan Nasrallah has been assassinated,” added Hassan.
Nonetheless, Sinwar’s grip on Hamas stays unwavering, regardless of some indicators of dissent amongst Gazans.
He was chosen because the Islamist motion’s total chief after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh was killed in July by a suspected Israeli strike throughout a go to to Tehran. Israel has not confirmed its involvement within the strike.
Working from the shadows of a community of labyrinthine tunnels below Gaza, two Israeli sources stated Sinwar and his brother, additionally a high commander, seem to have thus far survived Israeli airstrikes, which have reportedly killed his deputy Mohammed Deif and different senior leaders.
Dubbed “The Face of Evil” by Israel, Sinwar operates in secrecy, shifting always and utilizing trusted messengers for non-digital communication, in keeping with three Hamas officers and one regional official. He has not been seen in public since Oct 7, 2023.
Over months of failed ceasefire talks, led by Qatar and Egypt, that targeted on swapping prisoners for hostages, Sinwar was the only decision-maker, three Hamas sources stated. Negotiators would watch for days for responses filtered by way of a secretive chain of messengers.
Hamas and Israel didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Sinwar’s excessive tolerance for struggling, each for himself and for the Palestinian individuals, within the title of a trigger, was obvious when he helped negotiate the 2011 trade of 1,027 prisoners, himself included, for one kidnapped Israeli soldier held in Gaza. The kidnapping by Hamas had led to an Israeli assault on the coastal enclave and 1000’s of Palestinian deaths.
Half a dozen individuals who know Sinwar advised Reuters his resolve was formed by an impoverished childhood in Gaza’s refugee camps and a brutal 22 years in Israeli custody, together with a interval in Ashkelon, the city his mother and father known as dwelling earlier than fleeing after the 1948 Arab-Israeli struggle.
The query of hostages and prisoner swaps is deeply private for Sinwar, stated all of the sources, who requested anonymity to talk freely about delicate issues. He has vowed to free all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Sinwar turned a member of Hamas quickly after its founding within the Eighties, adopting the group’s radical Islamist ideology, which seeks to determine an Islamic state in historic Palestine and opposes Israel’s existence.
The ideology views Israel not solely as a political rival however as an occupying pressure on Muslim land. Seen on this mild, hardships and struggling are sometimes interpreted by him and his followers as half of a bigger Islamic perception of sacrifice, specialists on Islamic actions say.
“What lies behind his resolve is tenacity of ideology, tenacity of aim. He is ascetic and happy with little,” stated one senior Hamas official who requested anonymity.
