Yahya Sinwar: The Butcher Of Khan Younis

IT DOESN’T MATTER whether Yahya Sinwar, who took over as Hamas chief after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Teh­ran, was killed on Wednesday (October 16) as claimed by the Israeli mili­tary or on Thursday (October 17) as claimed by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. It didn’t matter in the end either whether Sinwar was the real mastermind of the October 7 attack or Mohammed Deif, Hamas’ military chief, killed in an air strike in July in Gaza. October 7 couldn’t have had a single mastermind but Sinwar definitely was one of its chief architects, at least strategically, while Deif would have seen to the tactical details. What matters is that Sinwar’s death ought to bring a sense of closure to both Israelis, especially families of the victims and hostages of October 7, as well as to Gazans, many of whom were reportedly relieved that Sinwar’s departure from the scene could end the war quickly now.

Who was Yahya Sinwar? A psychopath certainly. But that reduces a violent personality with a messiah complex who believed he was the man to change Palestine’s destiny. Born in the refugee camp in Khan Younis in 1962, Sinwar was a child of the Naqba, or Catastrophe, that Palestinians call the foundation of Israel in 1948 and their displacement. He grew up to internalise that history. Biology and environment quickly built him into a character who relished casual violence, was intrinsically and innovatively cruel, capable of turning torture into art. His first recorded victims were from Hamas and among Palestinians. Having founded al-Majd, Hamas’ internal security organisation in 1987, his lookout was treason, informers and collaborators. These he punished with the aim of making examples of them—examples still recounted by Palestinians. He once had a man slow-bury his brother alive with a spoon. He killed people with his own hands and boasted about his skills at it. Yet he was charismatic. He could move a crowd. And he did so without the gift of oratory. It wasn’t long before his own people started calling him the “Butcher of Khan Younis”.

Sinwar’s rise among Hamas ranks and his acquisition of the messiah complex perhaps had a lot to do with this proximity to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas guru killed by Israel in Gaza in 2004. Between 1988 and 2011 Sinwar had spent a total of more than two decades of his life in Israeli prisons where he had quickly become the mob boss meting out justice and negotiating on behalf of fellow Palestinian prisoners. He acquired fluency in Hebrew and came out each time more radicalised, more determined, and breathing revenge. That revenge culminated on October 7, 2023, especially in its brutality whereby babies were killed, young girls were raped and murdered and entire communities burned to the ground. It is the psychopathology of the attack that drew a straight line to Sinwar.

History is not made of what-ifs. But Israel had miscalculated, blundered in fact, in releasing him from prison in 2011 along with 1,027 others in exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. History might have been different had Sinwar stayed in jail to the extent he made a difference, and a big one, to Hamas’ operational philosophy and the fate of Gaza. After all, it was Sinwar’s control of Gaza, building its tunnels, and squeezing lives and livelihoods out of its inhabitants to bring the Strip under his absolute control that ensured Hamas had first claims to all aid, that no economic opportunities and hopes of a better, more peaceful future could break through. The poverty of Gazans did not move him. The deaths of Gazans in Israeli retaliation did not change his rocket fire. His gameplan always seemed long-term. October 7 was probably what he had waited his whole austere and angry life for.

Sinwar will not be mourned by Israel’s friends and onetime foes. His death is a blow to the Iranian regime but even Tehran was wary of his recklessness. They too knew he was trouble. Hamas will have a new leader and probably not announce his name, as used to be its practice. What matters now is how soon the Gaza chapter of the Middle East’s ongoing conflict closes.

IDF soldier Gilad ShalitIsrael-HamasIsraeli prisonsKhan YounisPalestiniansYahya SInwar