Summary:
- Yahya Sinwar, former shadow operative in Israeli prisons and within Hamas, now leads the Islamist movement in Gaza. Israeli officers label him a “dead man walking,” accusing him of orchestrating the October 7 attacks, considered the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 240 people taken hostage back to Gaza.
After a career in the shadows, spent in Israeli prisons and the internal security apparatus of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar rose to lead the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.
Now, Israeli officers say, he is a “dead man walking”.
Sinwar stands accused of masterminding the group’s October 7 attacks, the worst in Israel’s history, which officials say left around 1,200 people dead and about 240 dragged back to Gaza as hostages.
It was probably a year or two in the planning, “took everyone by surprise” and “changed the balance of power on the ground”, said Leila Seurat of the Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies (Carep) in Paris.
The ascetic 61-year-old has not been seen since October 7. Known for his secrecy, Sinwar is a security operator “par excellence”, according to Abu Abdallah, a Hamas member who spent years alongside him in Israeli jails.
