On May 14, 2018, the Hamas government in Gaza tried to engineer a breach of the Israeli border at multiple points under the cover of mass protests known as the “March of Return.” The event was heavily covered by the world press. One of the most striking figures caught on camera at the border was a man screaming in Arabic at followers to cross the border and “tear out the hearts” of Israelis. Most reporters either ignored this call for violence, or decided it was some kind of colorful metaphor. The man was Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas commander who’d become the terror group’s new Gaza chief the previous year—and who was killed by Israeli soldiers on Wednesday, in the rubble of Gaza, just over a year into the war he started.
That day in May 2018 was my first concrete memory of Sinwar: I remember thinking he seemed maniacal even for the commander of a terror group. When thousands of Palestinian civilians and fighters answering his call proceeded to storm the fence, Israeli soldiers guarding the border held them back, killing 60; Hamas claimed 50 as their members, Islamic Jihad another three, but as usual, Israel was still condemned for using disproportionate force. The border held.
Five and a half years later, on October 7, 2023, we Israelis weren’t so lucky. At dawn that day, Sinwar’s plan to invade Israel and trigger a regional war caught the Israel Defense Forces off guard. Following Sinwar’s orders, Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 people that day. Israelis, Palestinians, and many others in the region and beyond are now living with the consequences of the attack.
Sinwar was the man responsible more than any other for this war, but his death in a booby-trapped house in Rafah—he was reportedly found with a rifle, ammo, cash, a pack of Mentos, prayer beads, and a passport under someone else’s name—doesn’t mean it’s over. He’ll quickly be replaced as Hamas’s leader, probably by his brother and accomplice Mohammed. The organization is in tatters but hasn’t collapsed. His death, however, does bring the end of the fighting closer in Gaza.
Watch drone footage released by the IDF that shows Yahya Sinwar moments before he was killed.
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