What is known about Yahya Sinwar, the man most wanted by Israel who issued his first message since the start of the war

Yahya Sinwar is the most wanted man for Israel. Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that they had searched his home in the Gaza Strip, but did not find him. However, this Monday, December 25, the political leader of Hamas He surprised everyone by issuing his first public message since the start of the war on October 7.

Sinwar rated the combats in Loop as a “fierce, violent and unprecedented battle” and stated that “the Ezzeldin Al Qassam Brigades “They will destroy the occupation army, they are on the way to crushing it and they will not submit to the conditions of the occupation.”

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In the message spread through Hamas channels, Sinwar assured that Israeli troops “are suffering great losses in lives and equipment.”

He added that his militias attacked some 5,000 Israeli soldiers, “a third of them killed, another third seriously wounded and the last third permanently incapacitated.” He also said that they have destroyed 750 military vehicles of Israel.

As the EFE agency notes, the figures offered by Sinwar They are diametrically opposed to the official death toll of the Israeli army, which on Sunday confirmed 156 soldiers dead since the ground offensive in Gaza began on October 27.

On October 7, Hamas carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel in which he murdered around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. That day, the Islamists also kidnapped some 240 people, of whom 129 remain captive in Loop.

In response, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas and from that same October 7 began bombing Loopgoverned by Islamists since 2007. The Israeli retaliation already leaves at least 20,424 people dead, mostly women and children.

Israel He believes that there are three masterminds behind the attack on his territory: Yahya Sinwar; Mohammed al-Masripopularly known as Mohammed Deifwho is the current commander of the Ezzeldin Al Qassam Brigadesand Deif’s deputy, Marwan Issa.

At this point, it is worth explaining who it is Yahya Sinwarwhat is his true power and how many times has he been on the verge of being captured since October 7.

Who is Yahya Sinwar?

Yahya Sinwarwho was head of the Ezzeldin Al Qassam Brigadesis the current political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Loop and on paper he is number 2 in the organization, below Ismail Haniyeh, who has lived in self-exile in Qatar for more than a decade. But in practice, Sinwar acts as the ultimate leader.

Yahya Sinwar He is the person who really controls the most important decisions of Hamas, as he is the one who governs within the Gaza Strip, notes the EFE agency.

Sources close to the negotiations with Israel for a truce they told EFE that Sinwar He is the one who has the last word in conversations.

Born in 1962 in a Gaza refugee camp, Yahya Sinwar he joined to Hamas after its founding in 1987, according to a profile of him prepared by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

He completed his first studies in the refugee camp of Khan Yunisto later enroll in the degree in Arabic language at the Islamic University of Gazaaccording to the Arab television network Al Jazeera.

At the moment Sinwar heads the political office of Hamas in Loop. Israel He says that it was he who gave the green light to carry out the surprise operation on October 7 that ended in the worst massacre of civilians in Jewish territory.

According to a report by BBC World, Yahya Sinwar founded the security service Hamas known as Majd, which deals with internal security, including interrogations of suspected collaborators with Israel. This body evolved and now also tracks Israeli intelligence and security services.

Sinwar He has been arrested three times for Israel and is currently free thanks to a notable agreement that occurred in 2011 with Hamas for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalitwho was kidnapped for five years in Loop.

Sinwar He was detained for the first time in 1982, when Israeli forces kept him in administrative arrest for four months, BBC Mundo notes.

Three years later, in 1985, he was detained for eight months after being accused of helping to found the security service. Majd.

In 1988 he was arrested for the third time and sentenced to four life sentences. for his role in the murder of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian collaborators.

While Yahya Sinwar served his sentence, on June 25, 2006, the soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by militiamen who left Loop through a tunnel and surprised the crew of his tank who was next to a border fence. The attackers killed two soldiers and took the young man, who was 20 years old at the time.

Five years later, to free Shalit Israel agreed to an exchange deal for more than 1,000 prisoners from the Fatah and Hamas movements, including Yahya Sinwarwho by then had already been in prison for 23 years.

Sinwar returned to the dome Hamas and on February 13, 2017, he was elected head of the organization’s political bureau in Gaza.

Two years earlier, in September 2015, the United States included him on its list of international terrorists.

Where would Sinwar be?

Israel believes that Sinwar hides in the labyrinth of underground tunnels built by Hamas in Loop and that they are also used to hide weapons, combatants, hostages and for smuggling.

When the IDF did not find him at his home in early December, Khan Yunis, They said it was hidden underground and is constantly moving. Then, a senior advisor to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahumaintained that it was “just a matter of time before we catch him.”

According to intelligence information leaked last week to Hebrew media, The Israeli Army believes that it has almost found him twice in the tunnels of Khan Yunis.

According to his profile prepared by European Council on Foreign RelationsSinwar gained a reputation as a “brutal” person after he helped form the Majd.

“One of his first known attacks against Israel “It was the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers,” he said. Michael Horowitzhead of intelligence at Le Beck International who was quoted by NBC News.

Horowitz added that Sinwar “he has promised to release all the prisoners” he has Israel.

The ECFR profile says that after reaching the top of Hamas, Sinwar attempted to improve relations with Egypt and the moderate Fatah, the faction that controls the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank. He also tried to pressure Israel to loosen the military blockade imposed on Loop through a public diplomacy campaign and, at the same time, organizing large-scale Palestinian protests on the Israeli border.

In 2018, he was interviewed by the American newspaper The New York Times, where he said that while Palestinians “prefer to win our rights through gentle and peaceful means,” we would also have the “right to win them through resistance.”

Thus, while Sinwar publicly appealed to diplomacy and protests to pressure Israelin Gaza Mohammed Deif He planned the land, sea and air attacks of October 7, which he called Operation al-Aqsa Flood.

According to the Reuters agency, Mohammed Deif trained Hamas militants for two years before launching the operation. The same publication maintains that Israel He was convinced that the Islamist group was not planning military action. Reuters indicates that it was all part of a successful strategy of deception by the Palestinians.

“That man and his entire team are in our sights. “We will get to him, even though this may take a long time,” he said in October about Sinwar Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, spokesman for the IDF, in statements reported by the British newspaper Daily Mail.