Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar – brutal and pioneering terrorist attacks in the past
Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the attack on Israel on October 7 last year, was finally made the Hamas chief in August. Earlier, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in Iran's capital Tehran.
Born in 1962, Yahya Sinwar was an early member of Hamas, which was formed in 1987. Sinwar headed the terrorist group's security wing, an organisation tasked with catching Israeli spies.
Yahya Sinwar was arrested by Israel in the late 1980s. Sinwar had killed 12 suspected comrades and confessed to this after his arrest. Because of this, Sinwar was nicknamed “The Butcher of Khan Yunus”. Eventually, Sinwar and four others were sentenced to life imprisonment. This also includes the killing of two Israeli soldiers.
In 2011, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released Sinwar from prison in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in a cross-border raid by Hamas.
Sinwar is believed to have planned a surprise attack on Israel on October 7 along with Mohammad Deif, the leader of Hamas' armed wing. The attack killed 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians. After this, more than 40 thousand civilians have died in Israel's attack on Palestine.