Who is Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – the ‘butcher of Khan Younis’ Israel claims to have trapped in a bunker?
Israel claims to have the leader of Hamas holed up in his Gaza City bunker.
Yahya Sinwar has led Hamas since 2017, having joined its ranks in the early 1980s.
Believed to be the architect of the 7 October attacks, he is Israel’s most wanted – a “dead man walking”, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claims to have him “surrounded and isolated”.
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He has spent more than 20 years in prison for killing both Israelis and fellow Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the other side.
The 61-year-old’s nicknames include “the face of evil”, “butcher of Khan Younis”, and “man of 12” – in reference to 12 suspected informers he is believed to have killed.
Granted fatwa by Hamas founder to kill collaborators
Sinwar was born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in 1962.
He studied Arabic at the Islamic University of Gaza, which was founded in 1978 by the two men who went on to set up Hamas almost a decade later.
There he became particularly close to one of them, the cleric Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Yassin and Mahmoud al-Zahar co-founded Hamas in 1987 as a Gaza-based political splinter group of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to Israeli reports, Sinwar said Yassin granted him a fatwa (a ruling in Islamic law) to kill anyone suspected of collaborating with the Israelis.
At a rally following the 2021 ceasefire in Gaza City. Pic: AP
He was first arrested for subversive activities in 1982. In prison, he met other key members of Hamas, including Salah Shehade, the former leader of its military wing the Qassam Brigades.
After being arrested and imprisoned again in 1985, he was put in charge of Hamas’s internal security branch, the Majd Force, which sought out and killed suspected Israeli spies.
Dr Ahron Bregman, a former Israeli army major – and now senior teaching fellow in war studies and the Arab-Israeli conflict at King’s College London, said: “The Israelis tried for many years to recruit him as a collaborator himself, offering him massive incentives.
“But it never worked with Sinwar. In fact he became notorious for killing Palestinians suspected of collaborating.”
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Analysed: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar ‘surrounded in his bunker’
Learnt fluent Hebrew in prison
In 1988 he helped abduct and kill two Israeli Defence Force soldiers, which saw him sentenced to 22 years in an Israeli prison.
Despite being incarcerated, Sinwar used the time to his advantage – learning fluent Hebrew to better understand his enemy and ascending to become leader of Hamas prisoners in Israel.
Dr Bregman says: “He would read Israeli newspapers on a daily basis. He understood them way better than they understood him – hence his ability to deceive them and catch them off guard by executing his military operation so effectively in October 2023.”
Sinwar at a rally in Gaza City on 14 December 2022. Pic: AP
Fifteen years into his prison sentence, he went on Israeli television and spoke in Hebrew, calling for a truce with Hamas.
He was released in 2011 as part of the swap of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for just one hostage Israeli soldier – Gilad Shalit.
Commenting on his imprisonment afterwards, Sinwar said: “They wanted the prison to be a grave for us. A mill to grind our will, determination and bodies.
“But thank God, with our belief in our cause we turned the prison into sanctuaries of worship and academies for study.”
Pictured in April 2022. Pic: AP
Forced suspected informer to bury his own brother
Back in Gaza he continued to increase his influence among Hamas’s highest ranks.
He remained committed to his original task of unmasking and killing traitors – both Israeli collaborators and members of rival militant groups.
A former member of Israeli intelligence told the Financial Times that he once boasted about forcing a Hamas member suspected of informing for a competing faction to “bury his own brother alive… handing him a spoon to finish the job”.
In 2015 he is thought to have been involved in the torture and killing of fellow Hamas commander Mahmoud Ishtiwi.
He was accused of embezzlement and “moral crimes”, including alleged homosexual activity, with Sinwar thought to have orchestrated his murder over fears he could compromise the group.
Commenting on how he killed another collaborator, he told how he and a group of others blindfolded Ishitiwi and drove him to a makeshift grave, before strangling him with a kaffiyeh (Arabic male headdress) and burying him there.
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At a meeting with leaders of other Palestinian factions in Gaza City in April 2022. Pic: AP
‘Mythical figure’ in Palestinian history
The same year he is thought to have killed Ishtiwi, he was designated a terrorist by the US government.
He replaced Ismail Haniyeh as Hamas leader in early 2017 and was re-elected in 2021, later surviving an assassination attempt.
As leader he has increased the group’s use of force, stepping up protests and rocket fire at the Israeli border.
With his military background, he is seen as someone capable of uniting Hamas’s armed and political wings.
At a rally of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza. Pic: AP
Dr Bregman describes him as a “man of few words” and a “natural leader… charismatic, secretive and manipulative”.
“He will be remembered as the architect of the 7 October attacks and the person who inflicted on the Israelis their most terrible disaster since the establishment of their state in 1948,” he adds.
Although his methods have been “barbaric”, Dr Bregman believes it will be seen, “from a Palestinian point of view, in spite of the terrible price they are paying now, as a great victory”.
“Sinwar has earned a place in the pantheon of great Palestinian leaders,” he adds.
Pro-Hamas rally pledging allegiance to Sinwar in Khan Younis in May 2022. Pic: AP
Testimonies from people on the ground in Gaza, however, suggest his violent methods have left many of them disillusioned with Hamas.
With Israel’s promise to destroy Hamas and all of its leaders, Dr Bregman believes they will “get him in the end”.
But before then he could be offered safe passage to another country as part of political deal, as former Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat was to Tunisia in 1982.
“Whatever his fate, there is no doubt Sinwar will go down in Palestinian history as a mythical figure,” Dr Bregan says.
Thousands of troops are taking part in a joint military exercise between Russia and Belarus, as tensions with the EU run high following a Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace earlier this week.
The Zapad joint military exercise which began on Friday will involve drills in both Russia and Belarus as well as in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Belarusian defence officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the drill, but in May, its defence ministry said that would be cut nearly in half.
It comes just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down Russian drones over its airspace.
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Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday morning hit back at a suggestion by US President Donald Trump on Thursday that the incursion may have been a “mistake”.
He said in a post on X: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of the incursions and that it had not intended to hit any targets in Poland.
Friday also saw Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper travelling to Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on the same day the UK announced fresh sanctions against Moscow.
Prince Harry was also in Kyiv for a surprise visit to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
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Prince Harry arrives in Kyiv
Ms Cooper, who was appointed foreign secretary last week, posted about her visit on X saying: “The UK’s support for Ukraine is steadfast. I am pleased to be in Kyiv on my first visit as Foreign Secretary.”
The UK’s new sanctions include bans on 70 vessels that Britain says are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil in defiance of sanctions already in place.
Yvette Cooper with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Pic: Valentyn Ogirenko/PA
Some 30 individuals and companies – including Chinese and Turkey-based firms – have also been sanctioned for their part in supplying Russia with electronics, chemicals, explosives and other weapons components.
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Meanwhile on the frontline, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s oil-loading Primorsk port overnight, an SBU official said.
The attack caused fires and suspended oil-loading operations, the official added.
Russian defence systems also intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a spokesperson for the royal has said.
Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army, visited the city at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.
The Duke of Sussex travelled to the capital to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
Pic: Railway of Ukraine Ukrzaliznytsia/AP
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will also be travelling to Kyiv on Friday in what will be her first foreign trip since being appointed to the job last week.
Her visit coincides with the UK launching a new package of Russia-related sanctions targeting ships carrying Russian oil as well as companies and individuals supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used to make Russian weapons.
It comes as Russia and Belarus began a major joint military exercise on on NATO’s doorstep on Friday, just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down suspected Russian drones over its airspace.
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Drones shot down in Poland
The Zapad-2025 exercise – a show of force by Russia and its close ally – will involve drills in both countries and in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Meanwhile on the frontline, Russian defence systems intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight,
including nine over the Moscow region, the ministry said on Friday.
The duke told the Guardian while on an overnight train to Kyiv: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.
“We can continue to humanise the people involved in this war and what they are going through.
“We have to keep it in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”
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Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, previously travelled to Ukraine in April, when he visited war victims as part of his work with wounded veterans.
The prince visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopaedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians.
Earlier this week, Harry said the King is “great” after he reunited with him at Clarence House for a private tea.
It was their first meeting in 19 months and lasted just 54 minutes.
The last time the father and son saw each other was in February 2024 when the prince flew to the UK after the monarch announced his cancer diagnosis.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have lived in California since they quit roles as senior working royals in March 2020.
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.
The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is currently under house arrest in the capital, Brasilia.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence several hours after they found the 70-year-old guilty on five counts.
The counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.
Bolsonaro‘s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.
Pic: AP
The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government – with Donald Trump already sharing his thoughts on the vote.
President Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro, has said he was surprised and “very unhappy” with the decision.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro “outstanding” and said the conviction is “very bad for Brazil”.
Mr Trump previously called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes, and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday, he was seen at the garage of his property, but did not talk to the media.
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Justice Carmen Lucia. Pic: AP
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia, and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.
On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.
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Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro, saying: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”
Bolsonaro had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.
He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.
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