Yahya Sinwar, another important Hamas functionary was killed in an Israeli military strike in Gaza Strip, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
Sinwar, 61, was named as the head of Hamas' political wing after Iranian officials confirmed that his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a bombing in Tehran. He was in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of Iran's president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian. Notably, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had also attended the event.
However, Sinwar had a brief stint as Hamas political leader who was reported to be one of the key architects of the October 7 attacks last year that killed around 1,200 Israelis.
He had been one of the top targets of Israel following the October 7 attacks with Israel placing a $4,00,000 bounty on his head.
Sinwar had not publicly heard since late 2023 after the surprise attack, reported ABC News. It was believed that he was hiding in the vast network of Hamas tunnels under the Gaza Strip.
He was one of the key members who established Hamas in the late 1980s. In 1989, he was sentenced to four life sentences by an Israeli court for his role in killing suspected Palestinian informers and plotting the murder of two Israeli soldiers.
After spending 22 years in jail, he was released in 2011 along with a thousand other Palestinian detainees in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.
During his time in jail, Sinwar was head of Hamas' infamous internal security arm, Al-Majd. According to the ABC News report quoting sources, Sinwar was tasked with investigating members of Hamas who were potentially working with the Israelis.
Butcher Of Khan Younis
Michael Koubi, a former officer in Israel's security agency Shin Bet, described Sinwar as "tough" and devoid of emotions but "not a psychopath". As per the above-quoted report, Koubi had interrogated Sinwar for over 150 hours when he was a prisoner.
Koubi dubbed Sinwar the "butcher" of Khan Younis, the Gaza town from where he belonged. According to Koubi, Sinwar boasted during his interrogations about killing suspected Palestinian informants with a "razor blade" and "a machete".
Six years after his release, in 2017, Sinwar was elected the overall chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Koubi said he expected Sinwar to go down fighting eventually. He wanted to "die a hero of the slum, as a hero of Hamas, as a hero of the Gaza people," he said.