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.
At least four people have been killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after a series of Russian attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described one of the attacks as a “savage killing”, saying dozens of people had been injured.
It comes after Kyiv embarrassed Moscow when it launched a daring drone raid deep inside Russia last weekend, destroying dozens of bombers.
Firefighters work at the site of a building hit by a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, attempted US-led peace talks between the two appear to be floundering.
During the attacks on Saturday, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said: “Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack in the entire time of the full-scale war.”
The first wave of the Russian strike was a large drone-and-missile attack in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Nightly attacks from Moscow have become a routine part of the conflict.
At least three people died and 21 others were injured. There are reports that some people remain trapped underneath the rubble.
Then, in the afternoon, Russia dropped aerial bombs on the city centre, killing at least one person and wounding more.
Ukraine and Russia also accused one another of trying to sabotage a planned prisoner exchange.
A woman was freed from debris in Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
Residents reckon with Russian strikes
As emergency workers fought fires at the attack sites in Kharkiv, residents had to deal with the fallout of strikes that could have claimed their lives.
Alina Belous tried to extinguish flames with buckets of water to rescue a young girl trapped inside a burning building, as she called out for help.
“We were trying to put it out ourselves with our buckets, together with our neighbours,” she said.
“Then the rescuers arrived and started helping us put out the fire, but there was smoke and they worried that we couldn’t stay there.
“When the ceiling started falling off, they took us out.”
A man is taken away by paramedics in Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
An apartment building hit by Russia’s attack on Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters/Vitalii Hnidyi
Vadym Ihnachenko said he initially thought it was a neighbouring building going up in flames – not his own.
He was forced to flee after seeing smoke coming from his building’s roof.
Diplomatic efforts stall
Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said.
Russia acknowledged the attacks, but not the deaths, saying it had targeted military sites, while pictures show apartment blocks on fire.
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Rescuers carry the injured after the first wave of Russia’s attack. Pic: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
The regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said children were among those injured in the first attack.
While a US-led diplomatic push for peace has led to two rounds of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine, they delivered no significant breakthroughs.
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Later on Saturday, Russia and Ukraine also accused each other of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action.
This had been agreed during peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.
Elon Musk’s social media post claiming Donald Trump is in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has been removed.
The tech billionaire made the allegation on X as he traded blows with the US president in a dramatic public row.
In the post, which now appears to have been deleted, Musk said: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
He gave no evidence for the claim, which was dismissed by the White House – with the post disappearing from his social media platform by Sunday.
Users clicking on the message – first posted on Thursday – were instead greeted with: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.”
Epstein killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
File pic: Reuters
JD Vance has his say
Amid the fallout, vice president JD Vance said Musk was making a “huge mistake” going after Mr Trump but characterised him as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.
He made the comments in an interview with comedian and podcaster Theo Von – one of the “manosphere” influencers the Trump team targeted to gain votes with young men during the election.
“I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” Mr Vance said.
He also claimed that such outbursts “happen to everyone”, adding: “I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.”
‘Big ugly spending bill’
Musk and Mr Trump’s relationship broke down publicly on Thursday, just days after the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive left his role as a special government employee.
In a fiery exchange, Musk posted a series of messages on X criticising the president’s signature tax and spending bill as a “big ugly spending bill”.
President Trump posted on Truth Social, saying Musk had been “wearing thin” and claimed he “asked him to leave” his government position – something Musk denied.
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Musk then hit back with his claim about the US president appearing in the Epstein files.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the comment in a statement.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” she said.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
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The spat hit Tesla shares, which closed down 14.3% on Thursday, losing about $150bn (£111bn) in value.
In an interview with ABC News, Mr Trump was asked about reports a phone call was scheduled between him and Musk on Friday.
He reportedly said: “You mean the man who has lost his mind?”
World
Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Man wrongly deported from US to El Salvador has been returned to face criminal charges
A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration has been returned to the US to face criminal charges.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Tennessee with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US, attorney general Pam Bondi said on Friday.
Court records have shown the indictment was filed on 21 May, more than two months after he was deported from the US under a controversial 18th-century wartime law.
US attorney general Pam Bondi, alongside her deputy Todd Blanche, outlined the charges at a news conference. Pic: AP
In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer Andrew Rossman said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process.
“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” he said.
Salvadoran Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported from Maryland despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection after finding he was likely to be persecuted by local gangs if he was returned to his native country.
The indictment alleges Abrego Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations in the country.
On Friday, Ms Bondi outlined the charges at a news conference, saying: “The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring.
“He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found – smuggling people throughout our country… MS-13 [international criminal gang] members, violent gang terrorist organisation members… throughout our country.
“He will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country if convicted and then returned after completion of his sentence.”
Ms Bondi said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant.
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Chris Van Hollen (R) speaks to Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: Press Office Senator Van Hollen/AP
Democrat senator Chris Van Hollen travelled to El Salvador in April to meet Abrego Garcia, arguing his constitutional rights to due process were being ignored.
Critics of Donald Trump have pointed to the deportation of Abrego Garcia as an example of the excesses of the Republican president’s aggressive immigration policies.
US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what, if anything, Mr Trump’s administration has done to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura (R) filed a legal complaint over the deportation of her husband. Pic: AP
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Officials responded by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang – something his lawyers have strongly denied.
In a separate statement, Pam Bondi also attacked what she called the “Fake News Media” and repeated the – yet unproven – allegations against Abrego Garcia.
“The Justice Department’s Grand Jury Indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools.
“Abrego Garcia was never an innocent ‘Maryland Man’- Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable.”
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