Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar once said killing him would be ‘greatest gift’ Israel could give him
Israel killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in a military operation in Gaza, almost a year after he led the Palestinian group’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that sparked a fresh war in the region.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Israel’s foreign minister said in a statement.
In an old video, viral after his death, Sinwar can be heard talking about being killed by the Israeli forces and said that it would be the “greatest gift” they could give him. “The greatest gift the enemy and the occupation can give me is to assassinate me so I can go to Allah as a martyr by their hand,” he said, in the video captured in 2021, two years before Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Putting his hand on his chest, Sinwar continued saying he would prefer to be killed by a “F-16 or missiles” rather than a heart attack or accident. “I am 59 years old. At 60, you are closer to dying from natural causes. I prefer to die a martyr than die a meaningless death,” he said.
Who was Yahya Sinwar?
Yahya Sinwar took over as the head of Hamas after the previous leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in Iran. Born in a Gazan refugee camp, Sinwar led the group’s security wing since its early days.
On Friday, the Israeli Defence Forces or IDF released footage from a drone that captured the Hamas chief’s final moments before his death. The video shows an injured man, supposedly Sinwar, sitting in chair in a debris covered room. As he notices the drone, he picks up a stick and throws it at the drone, in a final act of defiance. Gazans have hailed Yahya Sinwar’s death in battle as an example of “how heroes die.”
Since October 7, around 1,200 people have been killed in Israel with hundreds others taken hostage by Hamas. Israel’s retaliation to the attack has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to be buried under the rubble.