Yahya Sinwar
Leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip (born 1962) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Yahya Sinwar (Arabic: يحيى السنوار, romanized: Yaḥyá al-Sanwār, born October 29 1962), also spelled Yehya Sinwar,[3] is a Palestinian politician who has been leader of Hamas, the Sunni Islamist political and military organization that rules the Gaza Strip, since 2017.[4][5]
Yahya Sinwar | |
---|---|
يحيى السنوار | |
Hamas Chief in the Gaza Strip[1] | |
Assumed office 13 February 2017 | |
Prime Minister |
|
Leader | Ismail Haniyeh |
Preceded by | Ismail Haniyeh |
Personal details | |
Born | (1962-10-29) 29 October 1962 (age 61) Khan Younis, Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip |
Political party | Hamas |
Residence(s) | Khan Younis, Khan Younis Governorate, Gaza Strip, State of Palestine[2] |
Education | Islamic University of Gaza |
He was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-ruled Gaza in 1962 to a family who had been expelled or fled from Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[6] He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic Studies.[7]
For orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators in 1989, he was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel, of which he served 22 years until his release among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.[4] Sinwar was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.[8][9][10][11] In 2017, he was elected the leader of Hamas, and claimed to pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" to the Israeli occupation the following year, a position which was later abandoned.[12] He was re-elected as the leader of Hamas in 2021, and was subject to an assassination attempt by Israel that year.
In September 2015, Sinwar was designated a terrorist by the United States government,[8] and Hamas and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have also been designated terrorist organisations by the United States, the European Union and other countries. Sinwar is regarded as the mastermind behind the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.[13][14][15]