TEL AL-SULTAN, RAFAH, PALESTINE – OCTOBER 16, 2024 Yahya Sinwar was the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He was born in 1962 and grew up in poverty in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. Sinwar was one of the founding members of Hamas’s security service and a longtime member of the movement’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In 1988, he was arrested by Israeli authorities for his role in the murder of Palestinian informers and sentenced to life imprisonment, but he was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Since assuming leadership of Hamas in 2017, he was considered one of its toughest leaders and took a hardline stance toward Israel as well as within the Palestinian political spectrum.

Yahya Sinwar

On 16 October 2024, Israeli forces succeeded in killing him, but they did not know they were targeting him. They launched a raid against a building where they received information that terrorists were based. It was only when they were searching the ruins of the building that they noticed that one of the victims resembled him. DNA tests have confirmed it, and now Israel can celebrate a great victory.