Episode 2726
Yahya Sinwar
Sat, 2024-Oct-19 02:09 UTC
Length - 4:12
Direct Link
Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.
With 475,444 views on Friday, 18 October 2024 our article of the day is Yahya Sinwar.
Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (Arabic: يحيى إبراهيم حسن السنوار, romanized: Yaḥyá Ibrāhīm Ḥasan al-Sinwār; 29 October 1962 – 16 October 2024) was a Palestinian militant and politician who served as the leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip from February 2017 and as the leader of Hamas as a whole from August 2024 until his death, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh in both roles.
Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-ruled Gaza in 1962 to a family who had been expelled or fled from Majdal 'Asqalan (modern Ashkelon) during the 1948 Palestine War. He finished his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he received a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies. In 1989, Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences in Israel for orchestrating the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered to be collaborators. He spent 22 years in prison until his release among 1,026 others in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. During his time in prison, Sinwar continued to coordinate the execution of Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel and planned the abduction of Israeli soldiers. Sinwar was one of the co-founders of the security apparatus of Hamas.
In 2017, Sinwar was elected as the leader of Hamas in Gaza and claimed to pursue 'peaceful, popular resistance' the following year, supporting the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, though he is also reported to have been dedicated to eradicating Israel and is said to have seen military confrontation as the only path to "liberating Palestine", saying that this would be achieved "by force, not negotiations". He also developed strong ties with Iran. Re-elected as Hamas leader in 2021, Sinwar survived an assassination attempt by Israel that same year. He is widely regarded as the mastermind behind the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023. The attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and led to the capture of 250 hostages, making the day of the attack the deadliest in Israel's history. Israel responded with an invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has caused widespread destruction in Gaza and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians. The ongoing conflict has since expanded, leading to an Israeli invasion of Lebanon targeted at Hezbollah and exchanges of strikes between Israel and Iran. Sinwar was killed on 16 October 2024, during a firefight with the Israeli military.
Hamas and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have been designated terrorist organisations by the United States, the European Union, and other countries and, in September 2015, Sinwar was specifically designated a terrorist by the United States government. In May 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Sinwar for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:09 UTC on Saturday, 19 October 2024.
For the full current version of the article, see Yahya Sinwar on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm generative Amy.
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