Who was Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader Israel killed?
The chief architect of the October 7 attack was a nightmarish figure to his enemies, and both respected and feared in Gaza
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How Israel killed Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief believed to be October 7 mastermind
Yahya Sinwar masterminded an attack on Israel that shocked the world, unleashing a still-widening catastrophe with no end in sight.
In Gaza, no figure loomed larger in determining the war’s trajectory than the 61-year-old Hamas leader. Obsessive, disciplined and dictatorial, he was a rarely seen veteran militant who learned Hebrew over years spent in Israeli prisons and who carefully studied his enemy.
On Thursday, Israel said troops in Gaza had killed Sinwar. There was no immediate comment from Hamas of his death.
The secretive figure feared on both sides of the battle lines engineered the surprise October 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel, along with the even more shadowy Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing. Israel said that it killed Deif in a July air strike in southern Gaza that killed more than 70 Palestinians.
Soon after, Hamas’ leader in exile, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed while visiting Iran in an explosion that was blamed on Israel. Sinwar was then chosen to take his place as Hamas’ top leader, though he was in hiding in Gaza.
