The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) just eliminated their top target: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Sinwar assumed leadership after the previous leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a Tehran guesthouse explosion on July 30.
Known as “The Butcher of Khan Younis” for his brutal methods of torture against both Israeli and Palestinian adversaries, Sinwar, aged 61, is believed to be the orchestrator of the mass killing of Israeli civilians by numerous Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
The IDF had been targeting Sinwar for a long time, dubbing him a “dead man walking.”
“We will find him, no matter how long it takes… and this conflict may be protracted,” stated IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht last year.
Sinwar was thought to be hiding in subterranean tunnels beneath Gaza.
Born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza in 1962, Sinwar’s family had been displaced from Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War – an upbringing that profoundly influenced his dedication to resisting Israeli occupation.
Yahya Sinwar appears during a ceremony for fighters killed by Israeli airstrikes on May 24, 2021 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Laurent Van der Stockt/Getty Images)
Sinwar co-founded Majd, Hamas’s security arm, in the late 1980s, dedicated to locating and exterminating alleged collaborators with Israel among Palestinians.
Arrested and imprisoned in Israel in 1988, he was charged with the killings of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians suspected of collaborating.
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Sinwar received four life sentences but was released in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
