A still from the drone footage released by the Israeli army showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar moments before he was killed. (Credit: Israeli army spokesperson)
The Israeli army killed its country's most wanted man by accident in ground fighting that broke out during a routine patrol in Rafah on Wednesday. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar died in the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp, around seven kilometers south of the Khan Younis refugee camp where he was born.
Eight days earlier, the White Houses' Brett McGurk said the U.S. believed Sinwar to be in a tunnel somewhere underneath Gaza, "with hostages in his vicinity," echoing similar statements from Israeli officials that Sinwar was in hiding, fearing assassination and using captives as a shield.
On Wednesday, Sinwar, armed and wearing a bullet-proof vest, t-shirt, and his head wrapped in a keffiyeh, was with two other Palestinian fighters whose identities remain unknown, when they encountered what the New York Times described as a unit of trainee squad commanders in the besieged Strip's southernmost city. The neighborhood's residents had been driven out and many buildings destroyed since the Israeli army invaded Rafah in early May.
According to an army statement, the three men ran from house to house, taking cover as they exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers. Eventually, it was only Sinwar left, although to them, he was still just an anonymous fighter. The army fired on the semi-demolished house he'd entered and then sent in a surveillance drone to see if he was still alive.
The footage, later released by the army, shows what appears to be a family home. There's debris on the ground and everything is covered in white dust, including Sinwar. He is sitting, completely still, in a red livingroom chair with his right arm, which appears to be bleeding, perched on the armrest. He stares directly at the camera. Almost a minute goes by as the drone hovers closer and closer. Then Sinwar picks up a wooden stick with his left hand and hurls it at the drone. It misses. The army fired again, with the strike that ultimately killed him.
Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar raises two peace signs during a rally in Gaza City, May 24, 2021. (Credit: Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
It took hours before the Israeli soldiers entered the house. According to an NYT report, there were explosives still in the area and the the soldiers thought maybe the fighters' body was booby trapped. When they found him, tucked within the debris with a fatal wound to the head, there was nothing on him except for his gun, misbaha (prayer beads), some poker chips, nail clippers, 40 shekels, and a pack of Mentos.
Photos circulated of Sinwar's body alongside reports that Israeli soldiers had killed someone who bore a striking resemblance to the leader in Gaza, who had been unanimously appointed political leader of the party following Israel's assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July. The next day, having tested his DNA and fingerprints, the Israeli army confirmed his death.
Sinwar spent 22 years detained in various Israeli prisons. During his time behind bars he learned Hebrew and translated entire books about Mossad and Shin Bet leaders to distribute to his fellow political prisoners, calling himself a “specialist in the Jewish people’s history.” He also wrote a novel called The Thorn and the Carnation.
“They wanted prison to be a grave for us, a mill to grind our will, determination and bodies,” NYT cites Sinwar as having once told supporters. “But, thank God, with our belief in our cause we turned the prison into sanctuaries of worship and academies for study.”
Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh take part in the funeral of senior militant Mazen Fuqaha in Gaza City on March 25, 2017. (Credit: Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
He is considered to be the primary architect of Hamas' al-Aqsa Flood operation of Oct. 7, 2023, and a hardliner with a taste for violence, especially in comparison with Haniyeh, who spent the first 10 months of the war and the last 10 months of his life negotiating for a cease-fire with Israel. According to a Wall Street Journal report, when Haniyeh was killed and Sinwar took his place, he sent an order out to Hamas commanders in the West Bank to renew suicide bombings in Israel.
One particular video, likely from 2021, started to circulate online following the announcement of his death. In it, a relaxed Sinwar speaks at what might have been a press conference. With a bit of a chuckle he says he'd much rather be killed by an F-16 or enemy rockets than from some natural cause or disease.
“The greatest gift Israel can give me is to assassinate me," he says, his hand on his chest. "I prefer to die a martyr."
