The Strategist of Terror: Portrait of Hamas leader Sinwar

Jahia Sinwar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is believed to be the mastermind of the terrorist attacks. Now he is said to have spoken to hostages in a tunnel – in Hebrew. He rarely shows up otherwise. Who is he?

It must have been confusing for some hostages in Gaza. A door opens in one of Hamas’s tunnels. A man appears and says in immaculate Hebrew, “Nothing will happen to you. You are safe here.” This is what a woman who was released says.

The man was none other than Jahia Sinwar, known as Abu Ibrahim or “Butcher of Khan Yunis.” For twelve years now, he has been the second most powerful leader after Hamas leader Ismail Haniya – and he is the most wanted terrorist in the Gaza Strip.

“We will get Jahia Sinwar and we will kill him,” said Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari recently described Sinwar as the commander of attacks on Israel and threatened: He is a dead man.

Significant hate speech of 2022

For both the Israeli government and the army leadership there is no doubt: Sinwar is one of the masterminds of October 7, in which more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, murdered and took hostages.

A plan that Sinwar must have had for a long time. A year ago, during one of his rare appearances in Gaza, he called for violence against Israel: “Everyone who has a weapon should prepare it. Anyone who doesn’t have a weapon takes his butcher’s knife, his axe,” he shouted at the crowd and aimed the word also to the Palestinians in the West Bank: “The actions of individual perpetrators have proven themselves. Two, at most three people may be involved. Beyond that, no one is allowed to know about it.”

Had Sinwar already drawn up the plan for the attacks on Israel back then? A lot is still in the dark. The Israeli army has already uncovered some things from the Hamas tunnels.

One thing seems to be becoming increasingly clear: only a few were supposed to have been informed about the terrorist plan of October 7th. Jahia Sinwar was one of them, says Israeli television journalist Ehud Yaari. He emphasizes that Sinwar had planned to kidnap Israeli soldiers as early as 1988, when he was arrested shortly after the founding of Hamas. He was sentenced to 400 years in prison for, among other things, the murder of twelve Palestinians.

“Ruthless, deceitful, intelligent”

Sinwar, who was born in Gaza in 1962, met Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, during his studies – a connection that helped him rise to the position of Hamas chief in Gaza.

Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel for 22 years, often in solitary confinement – and became radicalized, says Yaari. He interviewed Sinwar in prison four times. “He is ruthless, deceitful, cunning and intelligent. In my opinion he is a psychopath with borderline syndrome who has strangled and killed people, mainly Palestinians, with his own hands.”

According to Yaari, Sinwar is said to have established a reign of terror in prison. Yaari reports that he quickly became the feared leader of the captured Hamas members and all Palestinian high-security prisoners in Israel.

He recounts how Sinwar bragged to him that he had punished a Palestinian traitor by forcing the man’s brother to bury him alive. Instead of a shovel he had to use a spoon. Sinwar’s stated goal is to either kill or expel all people in Israel.

Sinwar uses the Israeli media

The former intelligence officer for the Israeli prison service Betty Lahat also describes him as a strategist who follows the media and uses everyone for his own purposes. She had to deal with the terrorist in prison for around 20 years. She describes how Sinwar, with the help of lawyers, sent messages between prisons in order to secure his influence: “He used the Israeli media and still does. I am 100 percent convinced of that. He watches on television how it becomes one Division is coming in our people. He is a real fox. He knows the Israeli people,” Lahat said.

When Sinwar developed cancer in captivity and Israeli doctors were treating him, she once asked him if he was grateful. According to Lahat, he said, “No, that’s your job.”

Sinwar’s task is to see everything that helps him destroy Israel. For him, this also included learning the enemy’s language, says Israeli journalist Ohad Hemo.

Understanding the enemy using his language

Hemo is one of the few Israeli reporters who also reports from the West Bank. Hemo, like Yaari, says that Sinwar insisted on speaking Hebrew during prison visits. “He knows chapters of our Torah by heart – in Hebrew. Not because he is a great theologian. Sinwar tries to understand in our language when Israel will be destroyed, how this Jewish-Muslim conflict will end,” remembers Hemo. Through this common goal, Sinwar is closely linked to Iran, which has supported Hamas.

Sinwar, now 61, managed to cheat fate several times. Thanks to Israeli doctors, Jahia Sinwar survived his cancer in prison. He was released from prison early because Israel exchanged him with more than 1,000 prisoners for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

After his release in 2011, Sinwar returned to a Gaza Strip where Hamas ruled. He quickly rose in the hierarchy; is also said to have survived an assassination attempt. Twelve years ago he finally managed to be elected leader of the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. Since then he has been Israel’s most wanted man there.