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”.
Follow live: Key Hamas stronghold ‘secured after 10-hour battle’
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.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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.
Read more:
Poll reveals what Britons think of Armistice Day protest
Satellite imagery reveals how Israel has cut Gaza in two
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.
To the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, they march, whipping their backs with metal flails.
It is an ancient ceremony going back almost 14 centuries – the Shia commemoration of Ashura.
But this year in particular has poignant significance for Iranians.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of the Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday.
Iranians gather ahead of Ashura
We filmed men and women weep as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was killed by the armies of the Caliph Yazid in the seventh century Battle of Karbala.
Shia Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates – of resistance against oppression and injustice. But more so than ever this year, in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here by people and officials.
Men and women weeped as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine
Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America, which it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israel launched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
“Death to Israel” chants resounded outside the mosque in skies that for 12 days were filled with the sounds of Israeli jets.
There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression, even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
‘I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him,’ one woman tells Sky News
A woman was dismissive about the US president.
“I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby link Imam Hussein’s story and current events. They show the seventh century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
Officially Iran is projecting defiance, but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence, and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times. We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani said it would be a mistake for Israel to attack again
But there is also a hint of conciliation. Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. Those hopes proved unfounded. The government is in control here.
For many Iranians it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
World
Two security workers injured after grenades thrown at aid site, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says
Two American security workers in Gaza were injured after grenades were thrown during food distribution in Khan Younis, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has said.
In a statement, the US and Israeli-backed aid group said a targeted terrorist attack was carried out at one of its sites in southern Gaza on Saturday morning.
The two Americans injured “are receiving medical treatment and are in stable condition,” it said, adding that the delivery of aid was “otherwise successful” and that “no local aid workers or civilians were harmed”.
GHF didn’t say exactly when the incident happened but claimed Hamas was behind the attack, adding: “GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food.
“Today’s attack tragically affirms those warnings.”
Later, the aid group posted a picture on social media, which it said showed “fragments of a grenade packed with ball bearings” that was used in the attack.
Asked by Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, whether the two injured individuals were responsible for handing out aid or were responsible for providing security, GHF said they were “American security workers” and “two American veterans.”
The aid group did not provide specific evidence that Hamas was behind the attack.
The US and Israeli-backed group has been primarily responsible for aid distribution since Israel lifted its 11-week blockade of the Gaza Strip in May.
Read more:
Hamas gives ‘positive’ response to ceasefire proposal
Outcry as Israeli strike hits school
94 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, health staff say
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
It comes after Sky News analysis showed GHF aid distributions are associated with a significant increase in deaths in Gaza.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, 600 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid from GHF sites as of 3 July, which charities and the UN have branded “death traps”.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press has reported that Israeli-backed American contractors guarding GHF aid centres in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Contractors allege colleagues ‘fired on Palestinians’
GHF has vehemently denied the accusations, adding that it investigated AP’s allegations and found them to be “categorically false”.
Israel’s military added that it fires only warning shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm.
It denies deliberately shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce “friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution centres.
Hamas has said it has “submitted its positive response” to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza to mediators.
The proposal for a 60-day ceasefire was presented by US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing hard for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal.
Mr Trump said Israel had agreed to his proposed ceasefire terms, and he urged Hamas to accept the deal as well.
Hamas’ “positive” response to the proposal had slightly different wording on three issues around humanitarian aid, the status of the Israeli Defence Forces inside Gaza and the language around guarantees beyond the 60-day ceasefire, a source with knowledge of the negotiations revealed.
But the source told Sky News: “Things are looking good.”
A woman cries after her son was killed while on his way to an aid distribution centre. Pic: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
Hamas said it is “fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework” without elaborating on what needed to be worked out in the proposal’s implementation.
The US said during the ceasefire it would “work with all parties to end the war”.
A Hamas official said on condition of anonymity that the truce could start as early as next week.
An Israeli army tank advances in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel. Pic: AP/Leo Correa
But he added that talks were needed first to establish how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of humanitarian aid that will be allowed to enter Gaza during the ceasefire.
He said negotiations on a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in return for the release of the remaining hostages would start on the first day of the truce.
Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the 60-day ceasefire would lead to a total end to the nearly 21-month-old war, which caused previous rounds of negotiations to fail as Mr Netanyahu has insisted that Israel would continue fighting in Gaza to ensure the destruction of Hamas.
The Hamas official said that Mr Trump has guaranteed that the ceasefire will extend beyond 60 days if necessary to reach a peace deal, but there is no confirmation from the US of such a guarantee.
Speaking to journalists on Air Force One, Mr Trump welcomed Hamas’s “positive spirit” to the proposal, adding that there could be a ceasefire deal by next week.
Palestinians dispersing away from tear gas fired at an aid distribution site in Gaza. Pic: AP
A girl mourns the loss of her father, who was killed while heading to an aid distribution hub. Pic: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
Hamas also said it wants more aid to flow through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies, which comes as the UN human rights officer said it recorded 613 Palestinians killed in Gaza within a month while trying to obtain aid.
Most of them were said to have been killed while trying to reach food distribution points by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings, but added that “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by GHF.
Read more:
The man in the room acting as backchannel for Hamas in negotiations with US
GHF reacts to claims US contractors fired at Palestinians
Deaths in Gaza rise significantly when GHF distributes aid
Palestinians carry aid packages near the GHF distribution centre in Khan Younis. Pic: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana
Ms Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were “GHF-related”, meaning at or near its distribution sites.
The GHF accused the UN of taking its casualty figures “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry” and of trying “to falsely smear our effort”, which echoed statements to Sky News by the executive director of GHF, Johnnie Moore.
Mr Moore called the UN figures a “disinformation campaign” that is “meant to shut down our efforts” in the Gaza Strip.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike