Who was Yahya Sinwar? The man behind 7 October attacks

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the 7 Oct 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, has been killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave, Israel has said.

Israel's Army Radio said the incident occurred during a ground operation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza where Israeli troops killed three militants.

Mr Sinwar, 62, was accused of being the architect of the Hamas cross-border raids on 7 October last year, that became the deadliest day in Israel's history. He had been wanted by Israel since the war broke out.

The Hamas leader had not been seen in public since the 2023 attack but people in contact with him have said he remained unrepentant, despite unleashing an Israeli invasion that has now killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to his Gaza homeland and rained destruction on ally Hezbollah.

Mr Sinwar is regarded by Arab and Palestinian officials as the architect of Hamas' strategy and military capabilities, bolstered through his strong ties with Iran, which he visited in 2012.

Ideology shaped by a childhood in Gaza’s refugee camps

Mr Sinwar’s resolve was thought to have been shaped by an impoverished childhood in Gaza's refugee camps and a brutal 22 years in Israeli custody - including a period in Ashkelon, the town his parents called home before fleeing after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Before the current conflict, Mr Sinwar would sometimes tell of his early life in Gaza during decades of Israeli occupation, once saying his mother made clothes from empty UN food-aid sacks, according to Gaza resident Wissam Ibrahim who has met him.

He became a member of Hamas soon after its founding in the 1980s, adopting the group's radical Islamist ideology which seeks to establish an Islamic state in historic Palestine and opposes Israel's existence.

Seen in this light, hardships and suffering were often interpreted by him and his followers as part of a larger Islamic belief of sacrifice, experts on Islamic movements say.

"What lies behind his resolve is tenacity of ideology, tenacity of goal. He's ascetic and satisfied with little," said one senior Hamas official who wished to remain anonymous.

Over 20 years in Israeli custody

Mr Sinwar was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to four life sentences, accused of orchestrating the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four suspected Palestinian informants.

A former Lebanese Communist militant, Nabih Awadah, who was imprisoned with Mr Sinwar said the Hamas leader viewed the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as "disastrous".

Calling him "willful and dogmatic", Mr Awadah said Mr Sinwar would light up with joy whenever he heard of attacks against Israelis by Hamas or Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

For him, military confrontation was the only path "to liberating Palestine" from Israeli occupation.

He said Mr Sinwar was an "influential model to all prisoners, even those who were not Islamists or religious."

Michael Koubi, a former official with Israel's Shin Bet security agency who interrogated Mr Sinwar for 180 hours in prison, said Mr Sinwar clearly stood out for his ability to intimidate and command.

Mr Koubi once asked the militant, then aged 28 or 29, why he was not already married. "He told me Hamas is my wife, Hamas is my child. Hamas for me is everything."

Mr Sinwar married after his release from prison in 2011 and has three children.

In jail, Mr Sinwar's leadership was pivotal during a 1992 hunger strike, in which he led over 1,000 prisoners to survive solely on water and salt.

He negotiated with prison authorities and refused to settle for partial concessions. He also used his time in prison to learn fluent Hebrew.

A ruthless enforcer tasked with punishing Palestinians suspected of informing for Israel, Mr Sinwar made his name as a prison leader and emerged from life behind bars as a street hero.

A new war-hungry leader for Hamas

Mr Sinwar's grip on Hamas remained unwavering, despite some signs of dissent among Gazans.

His understanding of the everyday hardships and brutal realities in Gaza was well-received by Gazans and made people feel at ease, officials said, despite his fearsome reputation and explosive anger.

He was chosen as the Islamist movement's overall leader after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh was killed in July by a suspected Israeli strike during a visit to Tehran.

Operating from the shadows of a network of labyrinthine tunnels under Gaza, two Israeli sources said Mr Sinwar and his brother, also a top commander, had appeared to have survived recent Israeli airstrikes, which reportedly killed his deputy Mohammed Deif and other senior leaders.

Dubbed 'The Face of Evil' by Israel, Sinwar worked in secrecy, moving constantly and using trusted messengers for non-digital communication, according to Hamas officials.

Sources said Mr Sinwar was the sole decision-maker during the months of failed ceasefire talks led by Qatar and Egypt that focused on swapping prisoners for hostages.

Negotiators would wait for days for responses filtered through a secretive chain of messengers.

Before orchestrating the 7 October raids, Mr Sinwar made no secret of his desire to strike his enemy hard.

In a speech the year before, he vowed to send fighters and rockets to Israel, hinting at a war that would either unite the world to establish a Palestinian state or leave the Jewish nation isolated on the global stage.

By the time of the speech, Mr Sinwar and Deif had already hatched secret plans for the assault. They were even running training drills in public that simulated such an attack.

October attacks and the beginning of war

The 7 October attacks killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and captured 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel responded by launching a massive offensive, killing 42,400 people and displacing 1.9 million - according to Palestinian health authorities and United Nation figures.

Now the conflict has spread to Lebanon, with Israel heavily degrading Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, including killing most of its leadership. Hamas patron Iran is at risk of being pulled into open war with Israel.

Mr Sinwar had drawn Iran and its entire "Axis of Resistance" - comprising Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and Iraqi militias - into conflict with Israel, author and researcher Hassan Hassan claimed.

He said: "We're seeing now the ripple effects of Oct.7. Sinwar's gamble didn't work.

"What Israel did to Hezbollah in two weeks is almost equal to a whole year of degrading Hamas in Gaza. With Hezbollah, three layers of leadership have been eliminated, its military command has been decimated, and its important leader Hassan Nasrallah has been assassinated."