2023-11-23 22:30:10
“We will find Sinouar and we will eliminate him!” », promised Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on November 4. Yahya Sinouar, political leader of Hamas and alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks, remains untraceable. After shelling and raking the north of the Gaza Strip, the Hebrew state suspects him of hiding – with his younger brother, Mohammed Sinouar, head of Hamas in Khan Younes, and Mohammed Deif, head of the movement’s military branch – in the tunnels and underground installations in the south of the Palestinian enclave, where the three men are from.
1962 – The refugee
Yahya Sinouar was born in the Khan Younes refugee camp, in the Gaza Strip, at the time under Egyptian administration. He comes from a family that fled during the Nakba, the great Palestinian exodus during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. From 1967, Gaza was occupied by Israel.
1980s – The Islamist student activist
Under the influence of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic revolution which triumphed in Iran in 1979, political Islam took hold in Gaza. Yahya Sinouar was then a student of Arabic literature at the Islamic University and he was active in the Moujamaa Al-Islami (the “Islamic center”). This association was founded by Ahmed Yassine, a charismatic quadriplegic sheikh, who took refuge in Gaza after 1948. The young Sinouar was arrested twice by Israel for “subversive activities”, in 1982 and 1985.
1987 – The “butcher” of Hamas
On December 9, the first Intifada, which began in Gaza, in Kahn Younès, engulfed all of the Palestinian territories. In the process, Sheikh Yassine created Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement). Yahya Sinouar co-founded, at the time, the Al-Majd militia, one of whose tasks was to eliminate Palestinians who collaborated with the Israeli occupier. This militia will become the security service, then the military branch of Hamas. His action earned him the nickname “butcher of Khan Younès”.
1989-2011 – Israel’s prisoner for twenty-two years – The Oslo Accords
In 1989, Yahya Sinouar was arrested and sentenced in Israel to several life sentences for the murder of two Israeli soldiers and Palestinians considered collaborators. In 1993 and 1995, the Oslo Peace Accords ratified the mutual recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the State of Israel, and provided for shared management of the Palestinian territories.
1989-2011 – Israel’s prisoner for twenty-two years – The withdrawal from Gaza
Incarcerated in Israel, Yahya Sinouar studied Hebrew and acquired fame among the inmates, who designated him as one of their representatives. In the Palestinian territories, the second Intifada broke out in September 2000. A wave of suicide attacks fell on Israel, which unilaterally decided, in 2005, to withdraw its army from Gaza and dismantle its colonies.
1989-2011 – Israel’s prisoner for twenty-two years – Hamas’ victory in Gaza
On January 25, 2006, Hamas won the legislative election against Fatah. Ismaïl Haniyeh, Hamas list leader, becomes prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. On May 11, 2006, faced with the risk of an inter-Palestinian conflict, political prisoners wrote the “prisoners’ letter”, a document of national understanding calling for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But war breaks out between Hamas and Fatah. It resulted, on June 14, 2007, in total control of Gaza by Hamas. Israel reacts by imposing a blockade.
2011 – The exchanged prisoner
Yahya Sinouar is released with 1,026 other Palestinian prisoners after twenty-two years of detention, in exchange for Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006 by a Hamas commando.
Building on his reputation, in 2012 he joined the Hamas political office in the Gaza Strip. There he liaises with the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the movement, to which one of his brothers belongs.
2017 – The boss of Hamas in Gaza
Yahya Sinouar was appointed by the Shura Council to lead Hamas in 2017. The ten years of blockade and repeated wars with Israel have left the population of Gaza bloodless. Hamas modifies its original charter by envisioning a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders without renouncing the former Mandatory Palestine, perceived as Muslim property. Yahya Sinouar engages in an unsuccessful reconciliation process with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah.
2023 – The mastermind of the October 7 attack
The armed wing of Hamas launches the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation against Israel, of which Yahya Sinouar is said to be the mastermind. It is the largest massacre of civilians in Israeli history. More than 200 hostages were taken to Gaza and, on October 28, in a Hamas press release, Yahya Sinouar said he was ready for an “immediate” exchange for “all Palestinian prisoners” incarcerated in Israel.
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