The sinister plot
Yahya Sinwar, who was imprisoned in Israel for 23 years before being released and rising to a top position in the militant group, declared during a gathering in Gaza last year that Hamas will launch fighters and rockets in a violent attack on the country.
The leader of Hamas delivered a speech in Gaza to thousands of applauding supporters that was replete with hyperbolic, crowd-pleasing language. When Hamas fighters breached Gaza’s border less than a year later, killing almost 1,200 people and kidnapping nearly 200 more, Israel realized it was no idle threat.
With God’s blessing, we will arrive in a raging flood. We will invade you with an endless stream of rockets, an endless flood of soldiers, and millions of our people, like the repeating tide
Sinwar, In his speech
At the time of the speech, Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the military chief of the militant Islamists, had already devised plans in secret for the Oct. 7 attack, which turned out to be the bloodiest day in Israel’s 75-year history. Israel has invaded and blasted Gaza in retaliation, killing over 15,000 Palestinians.
When heard in retrospect, Sinwar’s remarks portend the impending attack that Hamas nicknamed the “flood of Al-Aqsa,” referring to the mosque in Jerusalem, which is one of Islam’s holiest sanctuaries and is situated on a location that Jews regard as Temple Mount. Israeli raids on Al-Aqsa have occurred on several occasions.
Along with Deif and another commander, Sinwar is spearheading discussions for prisoner-hostage exchanges and overseeing military actions, potentially from underground bunkers in Gaza.
This week, a top Israeli security official informed reporters that Sinwar had sway over Qatar-mediated negotiations that resulted in the cease-fire that expired on Friday. Israel had exchanged dozens of Israeli captives held in Gaza for the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners.
Some of the Israeli hostages who were rescued claimed to have seen Sinwar in the tunnels in the days following the attacks on October 7. Officials from Israel and Hamas have refrained from publicly commenting on the alleged sighting.
Since Sinwar has spent half of his adult life in prison and has promised to free all Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel, the issue of hostages and prisoner swaps is very personal to him.
In his lone remarks following the assaults, he suggested that all Palestinian inmates in Israel will be returned home and urged prison care associations to compile a list of names.
In 2011, he was one of the 1,027 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for one Israeli soldier detained in Gaza.
“I demand that those in opposition promise to release the last detainees. After his release, he addressed a sizable homecoming gathering in Gaza City, saying, “This must turn immediately to a practical plan.”
Sinwar, the ”Dead man walking”
Sinwar, 61, who was raised in the Khan Younis refugee camp, was chosen in 2017 to command Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials view him and other leaders as “living on borrowed time,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated last week. This view has existed since October 7.
Regional officials have stated that it is doubtful that Israel will terminate the battle before Sinwar is killed or taken prisoner.
Before being imprisoned, Sinwar gained notoriety as a brutal enforcer and as the leader of the Al-Majd security operative, which hunted down, executed, and punished Palestinians who were thought to have cooperated with Israel’s secret agency.
Leaders of Hamas and Israeli authorities familiar with Sinwar concur that he has an unprecedented level of devotion to the militant outfit.
A Hamas official in Lebanon called him “puritanical…with an amazing ability of endurance.”
Sinwar was examined for 180 hours in prison by Michael Koubi, a former Shin Bet official, who claimed that Sinwar stood out for his capacity to intimidate and command. The militant, who was then 28 or 29 years old, was once asked by Koubi why he wasn’t married.
“Hamas is my wife, he told me, and my child.” Everything to me is about Hamas.”
Allegedly responsible for the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers as well as the murder of four Palestinians, Sinwar was apprehended in 1988 and given consecutive life sentences.
Israelis who worked with him have indicated that he maintained his tough stance toward collaborators while he was incarcerated.
He did not have the Jewish blood on his hands, he had Palestinian blood on his hands
Former chief of the intelligence branch of the Israel prison service, Yuval Bitton to Channel 12 TV
We saved his life and this is his thanks?
According to Bitton, the dentist who attended to Sinwar, in 2004 Israeli physicians removed a tumor from Sinwar’s brain. Bitton, whose nephew is one of the prisoners in Gaza, stated, “We saved his life and this is his thanks.”
According to Koubi, Sinwar was committed to murdering Jews and destroying Israel. In addition to calling him a “psychopath,” the senior Israeli official said, “I don’t think the way he grasps reality is similar to more rational and pragmatic terrorists.”
Bitton went on to say that the head of Hamas was prepared to put in great pain for a cause and had once in prison driven 1,600 inmates to the verge of a mass hunger strike until their deaths if necessary in protest of the way two guys were treated in solitary.
“He was ready to pay any price for the principle,” he stated.
