Hamas confirms martyrdom of Yahya Yahya Sinwar.
Yahya Sinwar succeeded Martyr Ismail Haniyeh as the leader of the group's political office just this year in August.
Hamas announces new Political leader Yahya Sinwar, who will succeed Martyr Ismail Haniyeh as the leader of the group's political office.
Who was Yahya Sinwar?
“Yahya Al-Sinwar” or “Yahiya Sinwar” was the Palestinian leader of Hamas Political and military wing in the Gaza Strip. He was the De facto ruler of the Gaza Strip.
He took over the leadership charge from Ismail Haniyeh in February 2017, in the besieged strip.
He was one of the co-founders of the security organization of Hamas, the Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa (Majd).
Sinwar was the leader of Hamas military wing “Izz ad-Din al-Qassam” in the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar was the second most powerful figure within Hamas before the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Read here about the Ismail Haniyeh assassination in Tehran
Sinwar was a local Palestinian born in 1962, in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, Palestine, and was around age of 61–62, according to various news sources. At this refugee camp he spent his early life, when it was under Egyptian rule.
After he graduated from high school at Khan Yunis Secondary School for Boys, he went on to the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic Studies
In his early life Sinwar worked as activists, he was first arrested in 1982, he served several months in the Far'a prison where he met other Palestinian activists, including Salah Shehade, and dedicated himself to the Palestine cause.
Sinwar was arrested again in 1985, upon his release he together with Rawhi Mushtaha co-founded the Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa (Majd) a security organization.
It took the responsibility to provide security across the state, and also it worked to identify Israeli spies in the Palestinian movement, the organization later in 1987 became the “police” of Gaza.
In 1988, he was arrested, convicted for murder of two Israeli soldiers allegedly, and sentenced in 1989 to four life sentences.
He tried to escape several times but was always caught. Sinwar served 22 years of his sentence before being released in 2011 and sent to Gaza as part of the prisoner exchange for an Israeli soldier.
In February 2017 Sinwar was elected Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, taking over from Ismail Haniyeh.
In March 2021, he was elected to a second four-year term as the head of Hamas Gaza branch in an election held in secret.
He was the highest-ranking Hamas official in Gaza after Haniyeh, he was bearing responsibility of the political and military leadership of Hamas the (Palestinian Sunni-Islamic belief centric, body, that governs the Gaza Strip, Hamas is a part of Palestine's Resistance Movement against Israel.)
Yahya was fighting till his last breath the Israeli occupation army who invaded Gaza in 2023.