The 'ruthless and cunning' leader of Hamas in Gaza

a key moment leading up to the present Gaza crisis came in 2011 when an exchange for a single Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas the Israelis released over 1,000 prisoners from their jails none more famous than Yaya Sina he had been incarcerated for 22 years after being sentenced to four consecutive life terms for murder he was given a hero's welcome in Gaza and was quickly re integrated into the Hamas leadership in 2017 he was appointed to replace the outgoing Hamas leader in Gaza Ishmael hania and he was reappointed to that post in 2021 he never made a secret of his elaborate plans to have thousands of Hamas Fighters attack Israel which he called the Jewish entity what true to his word the October 7th attack was Cod named alaxa flood it was just as murderous as he planned it ahud Yari has been a television journalist and author in Israel for for over 50 years he wrote the first biography of yaser Arafat he regularly visited prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails he interviewed Yaya sinlar four times he was always wherever he was sent he became in no time the leader of all the prisoners whether they Hamas or fat or any other organization because of his domineering uh personality and his ruthlessness people became either fans of him of his or were too afraid of it Hussein iish is senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington he says senoir wanted the massive Israeli Counterattack that has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians they have said not only do they want a permanent state of war with Israel but if October 7 had not provoked this reaction they would have tried again and again and again until they got this reaction because the ultimate aim is to lure Israel back into the Gaza Strip in a permanent way uh and to attack the Israelis in an Insurgency that goes on day in and day out so they can say to the other Palestinians and the Arab world we are the national movement we are fighting occupation forces every day for control over Palestinian land here in Gaza research analyst Joe truzman at the foundation for defense of democracies has closely followed sino's career in 2022 he stated publicly that uh if Palestinians did not have a gun that they should use Cleavers and axes to kill Jews all right now you can at the time you can you could say oh well that's just rhetoric he doesn't really mean it but he does he did I mean look look at what happened October 7th he was very clear that the state of Israel should be destroyed and the Jews cannot be a part of a a Palestinian State back in the 1980s sinir was an acolyte of Hamas founder shik yasim the quadraplegic religious leader he has said that Yasin charged him with rooting out traitors and collaborators in the Hamas movement at his 1989 trial in Israel Sinar confessed to murdering a suspected collaborator named Ramsey in the graveyard of his Gaza hometown of K Yunis he said we didn't tell Ramsey what we were going to do while we interrogated him we didn't beat him much I blindfolded him with a rag so he couldn't see I put him inside a large grave and strangled him with the CFA I had after strangling him I wrapped him in a white shroud and closed the grav I was sure that Ramsay knew he deserved to die he said that Palestinian victim knew that he deserved to be choked the guy is a shrewd cunning sophisticated psychopath I think he's a vicious guy I think he's one of these people who U might have been a gangster in other circumstances right um he certainly has this violent streak there's no doubt he thinks in a violent way during his prison years sinir used the time to learn Hebrew he said it was to better understand his enemy shortly before he was released he gave an interview in Hebrew to Israeli TV during which he claimed that he was now prepared to turn the page and work towards a 50-year ceasefire in the region I think sinir has been playing this ruse right for a long time I mean he fooled the prison the the the uh Israeli prison Authority into allowing him to be released or putting him on the list uh to to be released during the gilad Shalit deal and now look what happened uh and also in the last couple of years he made it out like Hamas wasn't interested in conflict with Israel he knows Israel he's watching Israeli television he reads the Israeli press he knows the nuances between politicians and parties and uh you know uh all sorts of influences on social media ER Etc he considers himself an expert on Israel in 2021 sinir launched a wave of rockets from gasa to rain down on Israeli civilians the Israelis responded by bombing the famous Gaza tunnels and they destroyed sinar's house and office with air strikes after he negotiated a truce sinir claimed Victory and posed for this photo in his destroyed house a brilliant public relations move that added to his popularity in the Arab world you know for him Gaza can be destroyed half destroyed you don't measure it as long as Hamas B bleeding even humiliated stands on on its feet it's a victory is it possible that senoir has miscalculated that this war could turn the population of Gaza against Hamas Hussein iish thinks that could happen requires Israel to leave Gaza and allow Hamas to crawl out of the rubble and declare Divine victory at that moment and for the months weeks and months after that it will become hard for Gins not to have a debate like what happened here why did they do that they knew it was going to happen and they brought this on us what did we gain what have we lost this is insane and they are horrendous and get extremely angry with uh Hamas on November 4th the Israeli defense minister yov Galant announced announced that his forces had senoir surrounded in an underground bunker unable to communicate with his Zas troops Yaya sinir has always been conscious of the Target on his back according to Ehud Yari he's always makes a point of being surrounded by children to deter the Israelis from going after him because he's a Target obviously he knows and he I think he accepted that he has to run for his life for the rest of his days I think he understands at the end the Israelis will get him doesn't matter where he is he could be in the bunker for a year for two for three at one point the Israelis will get it I agree with that I think this is the October 7 the all the authors of October 7 believed they were signing their death warrant Israel has clearly decided to kill everyone involved in October 7th and I'm pretty sure they'll be able to do that Yahya sinir signed his death as he has done many times in the past in October Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swore Vengeance against Hamas leaders whom he referred to as dead men he recently called senoir a little Hitler in his deal with the Israeli government sinir settled for a 3:1 ratio in his trade of Civilian hostages he is expected to be much tougher in negotiations for Israeli military captives if not at the over 1,000 to1 ratio that brought about his own release 12 years ago Terrence McKenna CBC News Toronto

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 298,729

Keywords: Yahya Sinwar, Yehya Sinwar, Who is Yaha Sinwar, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas leader, News, World News, Palestinian history, Gaza history, Middle East, who is yahya sinwar, hamas leader gaza, yahya sinwar story, Micha Kobi, Terence McKenna, CBC, CBC News, The National, Israel-Hamas war

Id: zW_Pu6MFmfk

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 02 2023