New Delhi: In a breakthrough for Israel the country’s defence forces eliminated Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar on Thursday evening. He was reported killed during the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)’s ground operation in Rafah. In recent times, Israel killed several top Hamas leaders including Hassan Nasrallah last month amid the ongoing war with Hamas.
As per Israel, his identity was confirmed through a DNA test using his sample from his time in Israel jail. Sinwar was among the three senior Hamas officials who were killed during the Israel attack.
Who was Yahya Siwar
Sinwar was born in a Khan Younis refugee camp in south Gaza. At the time the region was under the control of Egypt. Zionists had expelled his parents from Ashkelon in 1948 during the Palestinian catastrophe. Active with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980’s he was arrested for protesting against Israel for its occupation of Gaza. At the time, he was a student at the Islamic University.
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He is believed to have founded Hamas’ Internal Security Force Al Majd. The group was responsible for internal security matters. It was also responsible for the brutal killing of Israeli agents and Palestinian collaborators.
Sinwar was arrested in 1988 by Israel for the murder of 12 Palestinians. It was these killings that he came to be known as ‘Butcher of Khan Younis. He was also accused of being behind the abduction and death of two Israeli soldiers.
He spent 22 years in various Israeli prisons before being released in 2011. After getting out of jail, Sinwar joined Hamas again. He went on to climb the ladder and succeeded Ismail Haniyeh as Hamas’s leader in Gaza in 2017.
Mastermind of October 7 attack on Israel
Sinwar is also believed to be the mastermind of the October 7 attack in Israel that led to the killing of 1,200 civilians, while nearly 250 were also taken hostage. The attack led to a full scale war in the region, with Israel pledging to kill every Hamas leader. The US had also charged Siwar last month with “financing, directing, and overseeing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States”.
