22.01.2025 19:00
What is known about the new leader of Hamas, Muhammad Sinwar?
Sanjar Said:
What is known about the new leader of Hamas, Muhammad Sinwar?
On January 13, The Wall Street Journal leaked information about the new leader of the Hamas movement. According to it, after the death of the head of the Hamas political bureau, the hero Yahya Sinwar, his brother Muhammad took over the leadership of the organization in the Gaza Strip. According to the publication's sources, in recent months, the younger Sinwar has been actively engaged in rebuilding the organization after the losses suffered in the conflict with Israel. Previously, he rarely appeared in public, which is probably due to the fact that Israeli special services regularly attempted to assassinate him. In this article, we will try to provide detailed information about the facts known to us about Muhammad Sinwar and the decisions and actions that can be expected from him in the future.
On October 16, 2024, militants opened fire on Israeli soldiers during a raid in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. According to CNN's sources in Israel, the Israelis returned fire with a tank, after which they searched a nearby building using a drone. A man was found inside with gunshot wounds, and fingerprints, DNA analysis and dental records later revealed him to be Yahya Sinwar. A day later, on October 18, Hamas officials confirmed the leader's death.
Yahya Sinwar, or (Senior Sinwar), had been leading the mujahideen's operations in the Gaza Strip since 2017. He took over as head of the Hamas political bureau about two months before his death, in August 2024. He replaced Ismail Khaniya, who was assassinated in Tehran at the time. Experts believe that Yahya Sinwar was the main organizer of the Hamas invasion of Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. Some analysts have also mentioned Muhammad Sinwar among the other organizers of the attack. Before these events, his brother (who is 13 years younger than his brother) had received less attention from the media and military analysts than Yahya.
Sinwar the younger has previously been described as a confidant of his older brother. In the summer of 2024, he was mentioned as a possible successor to Muhammad Deif, the head of Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Sinwar may have taken over the responsibilities of several leaders of the organization who have been killed in the past year, including his older brother.
Israeli journalists covering events in the Gaza Strip still don't know much about Mohammed Sinwar. According to Hamas sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, the younger Sinwar prefers to "stay behind the scenes." That's why some of his comrades call him "Shadow." Unlike Yahya, Mohammed rarely gives interviews and doesn't speak publicly about his views and goals.
Biography of Muhammad Sinwar
Muhammad Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (or Kenja Sinwar) was born on September 16, 1975, in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip. His family had settled there since 1948, when the Sinwars fled the city of Majdal (now Ashkelon) during the Palestinian War of Independence. Muhammad was educated at a UN-sponsored school.
At the time, many young Muslims believed that they should unite against the Israeli occupation. And that was soon to be the case. An accident involving an Israeli military vehicle in December 1987 officially triggered the first intifada, which resulted in the deaths of four Palestinian civilians.
At the same time, supporters of harsh methods of struggle against Israel founded Hamas. The Sinwar brothers immediately joined the organization, and Muhammad became one of its youngest members. In 1991, at the age of just 16, he joined the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the paramilitary wing of Hamas.
The most significant event in Muhammad Sinwar's career was the organization of the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. This operation helped Hamas release several hundred Palestinians convicted of terrorism, including Yahya Sinwar.
In the early stages of the conflict between the Palestinian Mujahideen and the Israeli terrorist army, Sinwar Jr. did not stand out from other members of Hamas. The only information about that period of Muhammad's life and activities is that he spent nine months in an Israeli prison in the 1990s. He was released, but in the second half of the 1990s, by decision of the Palestinian National Authority, he was arrested several times again as a possible member of a terrorist organization. Sinwar Jr. spent a total of three years in Palestinian prisons.
Ascent
In 2000, shortly after the start of the Second Intifada, the younger Sinwar escaped from prison and joined his comrades. It was in the first half of the 2000s that he consolidated his position as one of the leaders of Hamas in Gaza. According to the Counter Extremism Project, Muhammad was mainly involved in planning combat operations and selecting performers.
"He achieved great professional success during the second intifada," explains Michael Milstein. "He was appointed commander of the Hamas paramilitary wing in Khan Yunis. Although he gained the attention of the leadership due to his relationship with Yahya, he was also able to assert himself independently."
The elder Sinwar was then a prisoner in an Israeli prison. In 1988, Israeli special services arrested him for his activities during the First Intifada. At that time, Yahya was found guilty of 12 murders and sentenced to four life sentences. Perhaps the desire to free his brother led the younger Sinwar to organize the kidnapping of 19-year-old IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in the summer of 2006. Hamas demanded the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier's return.
"Muhammad became a prominent figure in the militant wing of Hamas," says Yuval Biton, a former dentist who later headed the security at the prison where Yahya Sinwar was serving his sentence. "While Yahya was in prison, he entrusted his brother with the task of capturing Shalit. Yahya was primarily concerned with loyalty, not ability. That's what helped Muhammad rise through the Hamas hierarchy."
Initially, the Israeli government agreed to release only members of Hamas and Fatah who had not been convicted of murder during the Second Intifada. However, Biton said, even after Jerusalem made concessions, the Sinwar brothers opposed the deal that promised Yahya's release. It seems they intended to continue negotiations to achieve a more comprehensive exchange.
However, Hamas leaders Salih al-Arouri and Khaled Meshaal decided to make a deal anyway. As a result, in October 2011, Gilad Shalit returned to Israel, and on the way back, 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including the elder Sinwar and another 476 mujahideen, were released from Israeli prisons.
A former Mossad officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph that the kidnapping of Shalit and the negotiation of the large-scale exchange were Mohammed Sinwar's most brilliant moments. Without his brother's help, Yahya would have been unlikely to have become Hamas' leader.
"Mohammed was more important than his brother," the Telegraph correspondent said. "He was the one who first drew up the list of prisoners to be released. Of course, Yahya was included." According to the Mossad officer, when Hamas leaders questioned this decision, Sinwar Jr. walked out of further discussions and threatened to kill Shalit.
The "resurrected" hero
After an assassination attempt, Sinwar led a secret life and pretended to be dead.
Israeli intelligence first attempted to eliminate Sinwar Jr. in the early 2000s. Michael Barak, a researcher on Islamic movements at Reichman University in Israel, says there have been at least six attempts on Muhammad's life. After one of them, in 2003, Sinwar "disappeared."
Since then, he has made few public appearances and did not even attend the funeral of his father, who died in January 2022. According to Einav Halabi, a correspondent for the Israeli news portal Ynet, Sinwar has been shot at by snipers, his house has been bombed from the air, and his house has been blown up. However, Sinwar has escaped death each time.
Like other militant leaders, Sinwar Jr. probably used the network of underground tunnels in Gaza and shared his plans only with a few trusted people. This caution is explained by his position: in 2023, a former senior Mossad officer described him as "about seventh" on the Israeli intelligence service's list of Palestinian terrorists.
In the summer of 2014, after the Israeli military destroyed another house where Sinwar was located during Operation Cast Lead, Hamas and the IDF announced his death. In their messages, the military even distributed a photo of a bloodied body, claiming that it was the murdered Sinwar.
He was presumed dead until the fall of 2023, when Israeli intelligence identified him as one of the organizers of the October 7 attack. A source familiar with the inner workings of Hamas told The Telegraph that Sinwar was "100 percent" one of the planners of the attack on Israel. At the time, some media outlets called him "the man who came back to life."
"He is an expert in kidnapping people for the purpose of crossing the border and exchanging prisoners," said independent military analyst Ronen Solomon of Sinwar. "He moves covertly and only over limited distances." Solomon described Sinwar as one of Hamas' "secret commanders" in Gaza.
The IDF officially announced Sinwar's "resurrection" in November 2023. A few weeks later, the Israeli army released a video showing Sinwar driving a car through one of the underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
Fierce leader
"He is treated as someone who can kill without thinking," says a source in Gaza for Ynet. "He has participated in the executions and torture of collaborators on several occasions. When Muhammad curses them, people are paralyzed with fear. No one in Gaza dares to challenge him. People look at the ground when he passes by."
A former Israeli intelligence officer described Sinwar in a similar way. "He can identify a plane by its sound," the source told The Jerusalem Post on condition of anonymity. "No one in Hamas understands the methods of Israeli intelligence better than him. You can't find a major military event in Hamas's history in the last 25 years that he hasn't been involved in," he said.
It was probably the younger Sinwar's reputation that played a key role in persuading the Qatar-based Hamas leadership to appoint him as the leader of the organization in the Gaza Strip, replacing his deceased brother. After the death of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leaders planned to form a council of several people to lead the Palestinian faction. However, the mujahideen in Gaza refused to submit to such a body and unanimously supported Muhammad Sinwar.
Sinwar intends to continue his brother's work and has been actively recruiting new members in recent months. The Wall Street Journal was able to read one of Sinwar's messages to his comrades in late 2024. "HAMAS is in a very strong position and can impose its terms," the report said. "If we do not reach a comprehensive agreement that ends the suffering of the Palestinians and justifies their victims and losses, Hamas will continue to fight."
Sinwar's aggressive and violent rhetoric suggests that, despite the current temporary peace, he is unlikely to abandon the armed struggle against Israel in the long term. However, the actions of the Hamas mujahideen are not solely dependent on Sinwar himself at this time.
Michael Milstein explains that Hamas leaders based in Doha are more susceptible to outside influence and less decisive than Sinwar. If Sinwar is unwilling to engage in conflict with them, he may be content with the peace lasting, at least for a while.
What is known about the new leader of Hamas, Muhammad Sinwar?
On January 13, The Wall Street Journal leaked information about the new leader of the Hamas movement. According to it, after the death of the head of the Hamas political bureau, the hero Yahya Sinwar, his brother Muhammad took over the leadership of the organization in the Gaza Strip. According to the publication's sources, in recent months, the younger Sinwar has been actively engaged in rebuilding the organization after the losses suffered in the conflict with Israel. Previously, he rarely appeared in public, which is probably due to the fact that Israeli special services regularly attempted to assassinate him. In this article, we will try to provide detailed information about the facts known to us about Muhammad Sinwar and the decisions and actions that can be expected from him in the future.
On October 16, 2024, militants opened fire on Israeli soldiers during a raid in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. According to CNN's sources in Israel, the Israelis returned fire with a tank, after which they searched a nearby building using a drone. A man was found inside with gunshot wounds, and fingerprints, DNA analysis and dental records later revealed him to be Yahya Sinwar. A day later, on October 18, Hamas officials confirmed the leader's death.
Yahya Sinwar, or (Senior Sinwar), had been leading the mujahideen's operations in the Gaza Strip since 2017. He took over as head of the Hamas political bureau about two months before his death, in August 2024. He replaced Ismail Khaniya, who was assassinated in Tehran at the time. Experts believe that Yahya Sinwar was the main organizer of the Hamas invasion of Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. Some analysts have also mentioned Muhammad Sinwar among the other organizers of the attack. Before these events, his brother (who is 13 years younger than his brother) had received less attention from the media and military analysts than Yahya.
Sinwar the younger has previously been described as a confidant of his older brother. In the summer of 2024, he was mentioned as a possible successor to Muhammad Deif, the head of Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Sinwar may have taken over the responsibilities of several leaders of the organization who have been killed in the past year, including his older brother.
Israeli journalists covering events in the Gaza Strip still don't know much about Mohammed Sinwar. According to Hamas sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, the younger Sinwar prefers to "stay behind the scenes." That's why some of his comrades call him "Shadow." Unlike Yahya, Mohammed rarely gives interviews and doesn't speak publicly about his views and goals.
Biography of Muhammad Sinwar
Muhammad Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (or Kenja Sinwar) was born on September 16, 1975, in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip. His family had settled there since 1948, when the Sinwars fled the city of Majdal (now Ashkelon) during the Palestinian War of Independence. Muhammad was educated at a UN-sponsored school.
At the time, many young Muslims believed that they should unite against the Israeli occupation. And that was soon to be the case. An accident involving an Israeli military vehicle in December 1987 officially triggered the first intifada, which resulted in the deaths of four Palestinian civilians.
At the same time, supporters of harsh methods of struggle against Israel founded Hamas. The Sinwar brothers immediately joined the organization, and Muhammad became one of its youngest members. In 1991, at the age of just 16, he joined the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the paramilitary wing of Hamas.
The most significant event in Muhammad Sinwar's career was the organization of the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. This operation helped Hamas release several hundred Palestinians convicted of terrorism, including Yahya Sinwar.
In the early stages of the conflict between the Palestinian Mujahideen and the Israeli terrorist army, Sinwar Jr. did not stand out from other members of Hamas. The only information about that period of Muhammad's life and activities is that he spent nine months in an Israeli prison in the 1990s. He was released, but in the second half of the 1990s, by decision of the Palestinian National Authority, he was arrested several times again as a possible member of a terrorist organization. Sinwar Jr. spent a total of three years in Palestinian prisons.
Ascent
In 2000, shortly after the start of the Second Intifada, the younger Sinwar escaped from prison and joined his comrades. It was in the first half of the 2000s that he consolidated his position as one of the leaders of Hamas in Gaza. According to the Counter Extremism Project, Muhammad was mainly involved in planning combat operations and selecting performers.
"He achieved great professional success during the second intifada," explains Michael Milstein. "He was appointed commander of the Hamas paramilitary wing in Khan Yunis. Although he gained the attention of the leadership due to his relationship with Yahya, he was also able to assert himself independently."
The elder Sinwar was then a prisoner in an Israeli prison. In 1988, Israeli special services arrested him for his activities during the First Intifada. At that time, Yahya was found guilty of 12 murders and sentenced to four life sentences. Perhaps the desire to free his brother led the younger Sinwar to organize the kidnapping of 19-year-old IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in the summer of 2006. Hamas demanded the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier's return.
"Muhammad became a prominent figure in the militant wing of Hamas," says Yuval Biton, a former dentist who later headed the security at the prison where Yahya Sinwar was serving his sentence. "While Yahya was in prison, he entrusted his brother with the task of capturing Shalit. Yahya was primarily concerned with loyalty, not ability. That's what helped Muhammad rise through the Hamas hierarchy."
Initially, the Israeli government agreed to release only members of Hamas and Fatah who had not been convicted of murder during the Second Intifada. However, Biton said, even after Jerusalem made concessions, the Sinwar brothers opposed the deal that promised Yahya's release. It seems they intended to continue negotiations to achieve a more comprehensive exchange.
However, Hamas leaders Salih al-Arouri and Khaled Meshaal decided to make a deal anyway. As a result, in October 2011, Gilad Shalit returned to Israel, and on the way back, 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including the elder Sinwar and another 476 mujahideen, were released from Israeli prisons.
A former Mossad officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph that the kidnapping of Shalit and the negotiation of the large-scale exchange were Mohammed Sinwar's most brilliant moments. Without his brother's help, Yahya would have been unlikely to have become Hamas' leader.
"Mohammed was more important than his brother," the Telegraph correspondent said. "He was the one who first drew up the list of prisoners to be released. Of course, Yahya was included." According to the Mossad officer, when Hamas leaders questioned this decision, Sinwar Jr. walked out of further discussions and threatened to kill Shalit.
The "resurrected" hero
After an assassination attempt, Sinwar led a secret life and pretended to be dead.
Israeli intelligence first attempted to eliminate Sinwar Jr. in the early 2000s. Michael Barak, a researcher on Islamic movements at Reichman University in Israel, says there have been at least six attempts on Muhammad's life. After one of them, in 2003, Sinwar "disappeared."
Since then, he has made few public appearances and did not even attend the funeral of his father, who died in January 2022. According to Einav Halabi, a correspondent for the Israeli news portal Ynet, Sinwar has been shot at by snipers, his house has been bombed from the air, and his house has been blown up. However, Sinwar has escaped death each time.
Like other militant leaders, Sinwar Jr. probably used the network of underground tunnels in Gaza and shared his plans only with a few trusted people. This caution is explained by his position: in 2023, a former senior Mossad officer described him as "about seventh" on the Israeli intelligence service's list of Palestinian terrorists.
In the summer of 2014, after the Israeli military destroyed another house where Sinwar was located during Operation Cast Lead, Hamas and the IDF announced his death. In their messages, the military even distributed a photo of a bloodied body, claiming that it was the murdered Sinwar.
He was presumed dead until the fall of 2023, when Israeli intelligence identified him as one of the organizers of the October 7 attack. A source familiar with the inner workings of Hamas told The Telegraph that Sinwar was "100 percent" one of the planners of the attack on Israel. At the time, some media outlets called him "the man who came back to life."
"He is an expert in kidnapping people for the purpose of crossing the border and exchanging prisoners," said independent military analyst Ronen Solomon of Sinwar. "He moves covertly and only over limited distances." Solomon described Sinwar as one of Hamas' "secret commanders" in Gaza.
The IDF officially announced Sinwar's "resurrection" in November 2023. A few weeks later, the Israeli army released a video showing Sinwar driving a car through one of the underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
Fierce leader
"He is treated as someone who can kill without thinking," says a source in Gaza for Ynet. "He has participated in the executions and torture of collaborators on several occasions. When Muhammad curses them, people are paralyzed with fear. No one in Gaza dares to challenge him. People look at the ground when he passes by."
A former Israeli intelligence officer described Sinwar in a similar way. "He can identify a plane by its sound," the source told The Jerusalem Post on condition of anonymity. "No one in Hamas understands the methods of Israeli intelligence better than him. You can't find a major military event in Hamas's history in the last 25 years that he hasn't been involved in," he said.
It was probably the younger Sinwar's reputation that played a key role in persuading the Qatar-based Hamas leadership to appoint him as the leader of the organization in the Gaza Strip, replacing his deceased brother. After the death of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leaders planned to form a council of several people to lead the Palestinian faction. However, the mujahideen in Gaza refused to submit to such a body and unanimously supported Muhammad Sinwar.
Sinwar intends to continue his brother's work and has been actively recruiting new members in recent months. The Wall Street Journal was able to read one of Sinwar's messages to his comrades in late 2024. "HAMAS is in a very strong position and can impose its terms," the report said. "If we do not reach a comprehensive agreement that ends the suffering of the Palestinians and justifies their victims and losses, Hamas will continue to fight."
Sinwar's aggressive and violent rhetoric suggests that, despite the current temporary peace, he is unlikely to abandon the armed struggle against Israel in the long term. However, the actions of the Hamas mujahideen are not solely dependent on Sinwar himself at this time.
Michael Milstein explains that Hamas leaders based in Doha are more susceptible to outside influence and less decisive than Sinwar. If Sinwar is unwilling to engage in conflict with them, he may be content with the peace lasting, at least for a while.
