Yahya Sinwar

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Yahya Sinwar
يحيى السنوار
Sinwar in 2023
Hamas Chief in the Gaza Strip[1]
Assumed office
13 February 2017
Prime Minister
LeaderIsmail Haniyeh
Preceded byIsmail Haniyeh
Personal details
Born (1962-10-29) 29 October 1962 (age 61)
Khan Younis, Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip
Political partyHamas
ResidenceKhan Younis, Khan Younis Governorate, Gaza Strip, State of Palestine[2]
EducationIslamic University of Gaza

Yahya Sinwar is a Palestinian politician who is the leader of Hamas in Gaza.[3][4]

He was born in a Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza (ruled by Egypt at the time) in 1962 to a family who was forcibly removed from the city of Ashkelon in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[5] He studied at the Islamic University of Gaza and got a degree in studies of the Arabic language.[6]

He got 4 life sentences (18 years each) in 1989 for killing 8 Israelis and their allies by Israel, where he spent 22 years in until the 2011 prison swap where he was released with approximately 1,000 other prisoners for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.[7] He was elected in 2017 as Hamas' leader in Gaza and wanted to seek "peaceful resistance" against Israel. He was re-elected in 2021 and was almost killed by Israel that year.

References[change | change source]

  1. "Israeli occupation's threats against Hamas officials reflect political impasse". Hamas. 25 September 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  2. Sabbagh, Dan (26 November 2023). "IDF messaging suggests Gaza truce unlikely to last much beyond Tuesday". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  3. Beaumont, Peter (13 February 2017). "Hamas elects hardliner Yahya Sinwar as its Gaza Strip chief". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017.
  4. Balousha, Hazam; Booth, William (13 February 2017). "Hamas names hard-liner as its new political leader in Gaza". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017.
  5. "Yahya Sinwar | Hamas Leader, Biography, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 28 January 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  6. "Who is the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar?". BBC News. 21 November 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  7. Beaumont, Peter (13 February 2017). "Hamas elects hardliner Yahya Sinwar as its Gaza Strip chief". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017.