Israel has claimed that it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, an assassination that — if confirmed — would spell uncertainty for the Palestinian group in Gaza.

Sinwar, 62, spent his life organising, struggling and fighting against Israel before being appointed as Hamas’s political chief at-large to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in a suspected Israeli attack in Tehran on July 31. 

Hamas has not commented on Israel’s claim of killing Sinwar, which came on Thursday as the region slides into further violence, spurring fears of an all-out conflict across the Middle East.

Israel is at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iraqi groups and Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at Israel. The United States military has been bombing Houthi positions in Yemen. And Israel is set to attack Iran in response to an Iranian missile assault on Israeli military bases.

Still, US officials have expressed hope that the killing of Sinwar may help put an end to the conflict.

Seen as the architect of the attack on October 7, 2023, against Israel, Sinwar viewed armed struggle as the most effective way to confront the Israeli occupation amid what he described as the indifference of the international community towards the suffering of Palestinians. 

The Gaza-based Palestinian leader has been public enemy number one in Israel. Prior to becoming the head of Hamas’s political bureau he served as the group’s top official in Gaza.

Not seen publicly throughout the war, Sinwar was assumed to be in hiding. Some media reports suggested that he was deep inside Hamas’s tunnel network, surrounded by Israeli captives.

However, according to Israeli accounts, Sinwar was killed in Rafah after a firefight with Israeli troops. It is not clear why he was out with fighters or whether he had been commanding military operations from above ground all along.

Born in 1962 in a refugee camp Khan Younis, Sinwar is often portrayed as one of the most uncompromising top Hamas officials. He was arrested by Israel repeatedly in the early 1980s for his involvement in anti-occupation activism at the Islamic University in Gaza.

After his graduation, he helped establish a network of fighters to take up armed resistance against Israel. The group would later become the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Sinwar joined Hamas as one of its leaders almost as soon as the group was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1987. The following year, he was arrested by the Israeli forces and handed four life sentences — the equivalent of 426 years in jail — for alleged involvement in the capture and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four suspected Palestinian spies.

While incarcerated, Sinwar penned a novel about the Palestinian struggle, believed to be partly autobiographical, entitled The Thorn and the Carnation.

He spent 23 years in Israeli jail where he learned Hebrew and became well-versed in Israeli affairs and domestic politics. He was freed in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal that saw the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Hamas. 

After his release, Sinwar quickly rose through Hamas’s ranks again. In 2012, he was elected to the group’s political bureau and was tasked with coordinating with the Qassam Brigades.

He played a leading political and military role during Israel’s seven-week offensive against Gaza in 2014. The next year, the United States labelled Sinwar as a “specially designated global terrorist”.

In 2017, Sinwar became Hamas’s chief in Gaza, succeeding Haniyeh, who was elected as the chair of the group’s political bureau.

Unlike Haniyeh, who had travelled regionally and delivered speeches throughout the war on Gaza until his assassination, Sinwar had been tight-lipped since October 7, 2023.

International Criminal Court prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for him along with Haniyeh, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yaov Gallant over alleged war crimes in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

In a 2021 interview with Vice News, Sinwar said that, while Palestinians do not seek war due to its high cost, they will not “wave the white flag”.

“For long periods, we tried peaceful and popular resistance. We expected that the world, free people and international organisations would stand by our people and stop occupation from committing crimes and massacring our people. Unfortunately, the world stood by and watched,” he said.

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Sinwar was likely describing the Great March of Return, during which Palestinians protested every week for months on end at the Gaza border in 2018 and 2019. Those demonstrations, however, were met violent Israeli crackdowns that killed more than 220 people and injured many more.

Asked about Hamas’s tactics, including firing indiscriminate rockets that could harm civilians, Sinwar said Palestinians are fighting with the means at their disposal. He accused Israel of deliberately killing Palestinian civilians en masse, despite having advanced, precise weaponry.

“Does the world expect us to be well-behaved victims while we are being killed, for us to be slaughtered without making a noise?” Sinwar said.

This article was updated on October 17.