Who was the leader of Hamas?

Yahya Sinwar’s Return to Gaza During the 2023 Israeli Airborne Attack: Israel and the Defense of Hamas

Sinwar’s return to Gaza with the release of prisoners helped him become leader of the Gaza branch of the group, which is designated by several countries as a terrorist organization.

He was appointed the leader of the entire group after Israel killed his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Tehran in July. The head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July. The deputy political chief of Hamas was killed in a bombing in Lebanon.

The military says three militants were killed in a building and that the military and Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency are looking into whether one of them was Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

There was no sign of Israeli hostages in the area where three men were killed, and troops are operating in the area with caution.

Many Israelis were worried that the pause in fighting would benefit Hamas fighters, and leave more time for international pressure to be put on Israel to stop its military assault. Following a dispute over the kind of hostages that Hamas wanted to release, Israel renewed combat in Gaza.

During that time in late November 2023, both sides agreed to a temporary cease-fire in the war. Israel releases Hamas hostages for every 10 it releases, then extends the cease-fire another day and releases 30 prisoners.

David Meidan, the Israeli negotiator who, along with other officials, had approved Sinwar’s release from prison in 2011 during an exchange that saw Palestinian prisoners released in return for a single Israeli captive soldier, says Sinwar’s strategy with the Oct. 7, 2023, attack was similar.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and injured over 99,000, according to the Health Ministry.

When Hamas fighters stormed the border, killed about 1,200 people and took back to Gaza at least 240 captives, according to Israeli officials, Israeli society alongside the country’s political and military elite were largely confounded, and deeply shocked.

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I don’t know. Hulata told the journalists that it was wrong to think we had an understanding of Sinwar’s thinking.

Israel’s permits for workers from Gaza resumed, and surged to higher numbers, while fighting between Gaza and Israel ceased. Before the current war, the number of permits given to Gaza laborers by Israel increased to over 8,000.

During this time, Hamas encouraged violent protests along the Israeli border fence. He said it was a strategy he learned from his hunger strikes in Israeli prison, where he said Palestinian prisoners had protested better conditions from their Israeli jailers.

“Your presence for us is a big accomplishment and asset for our people and our cause,” he told visiting reporters at a 2018 press conference in Gaza City that lasted two hours.

President Biden said Sinwar’s death was “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.” Militants on Oct. 7 took seven U.S. citizens hostage, with four of them still believed to be held alive by Hamas in Gaza.

Sinwar had a group of people who would smuggle cellphones into the prison and interrogations of prisoners about how they had been caught planning an attack against Israel.

Sinwar‘s death in an Israeli assault in Gaza fulfilled a promise made by Israeli leaders made last year, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who swore they would assassinate him in retribution for the wave of killings and hostage-taking that horrified Israel a year ago.

He spent more than two decades in Israeli jails before being free 12 years ago in a hostage bargaining deal he hoped to broker during the current conflict.

But his role during repeated rounds of on-again, off-again cease-fire talks between Hamas and Israel — brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar — provided him with significant influence, as he continued trying to outmaneuver Israel, and survive.

He spoke to Palestinians in Gaza that it was an opportunity to break free from the tyranny of the group. Since 2007, when Hamas took over Gaza in a power struggle with the rival Palestinian group, there have been no elections.

Israel’s Defense Minister called on Hamas fighters to surrender at the border with Gaza.

“Yahya Sinwar ended his life being beaten, persecuted, fleeing for his life, not in command of his organization and only taking care of himself,” he said. “This is the time to go out, release the hostages, raise your hands, surrender.”

He said Hamas was no longer a coherent group as it was a year ago, amid heavily disrupted communications networks, continuous losses of its leadership and existing decentralization. He said that they can do nothing bigger than what they’ve been doing.

Blinken said the U.S. would now “redouble its efforts with partners to end this conflict” and “chart a new path forward that will enable the people of Gaza to rebuild their lives.” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz appealed for “support and assistance” to advance Israel’s goals of creating a “new reality in Gaza,” alongside “the immediate release” of the hostages.

The 101 hostages are still being held in horrible conditions and Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it was necessary to act in every way possible to bring them back.

Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded is among the Israeli hostages still presumed to be alive in Gaza, said in a press conference both Sinwar and Netanyahu had previously provided barriers to a cease-fire deal that would lead to the release of Israelis held captive “for their own interests.” In light of Sinwar’s death, Lifshitz insisted it was now “the time” for the Israeli leader to strike an agreement. “Sinwar was a major obstacle to a deal for months now, this obstacle has been removed,” he said.

At a rally in Tel Aviv Thursday night for family members of those held captive, there was some celebration but also concern among attendees. Dana Leitersdorf said she was emotional after a difficult year, but also worried by news of the Hamas leader’s death.

“Now the hostages are in the hands of very brutal, unorganized men,” she said. They can be killed because of their revenge, or just for fun.

Others, like 60-year-old Yael Adar, whose son Tamir was killed and his body seized during last year’s Oct. 7 attack, were glad about the Israeli military’s “success” and the “justice” served against Hamas. She wanted her son to be buried in a dignified way and called on the Israeli government, global leaders and the mediators to use this time to bring back all hostages.

Political groups in the West Bank called for a “Day of Rage” against the war and the siege on Gaza after the Hamas leader was killed.

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Khaled Ali, a lawyer and human rights activist in Egypt who had considered a run for that country’s presidency before withdrawing in 2018, bid “farewell to the martyr” Sinwar, whose death, he said, represented a “legendary departure and a painful loss of an exceptional leader who passed through the defeated Arab lands with honor, pride and courage.”

The humanitarian crisis has not stopped and continues to draw stern statements from international leaders.

“Almost everyone in Gaza is going hungry according to the latest assessment,” said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as he reiterated demands for a cease-fire. The best medicine is peace.

According to statements issued by both countries’ foreign ministries, the U.S. Secretary of State called his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and stated that Sinwar had rejected efforts by the United States and its partners to bring this war to a close.