Yahya Sinwar (Chairman)*
Yahya Sinwar (يحيى السنوار), born in 1962 in Khan Younis, was the chairman of Hamas’s Politburo from August 2024 until his death fighting Israeli forces in southern Gaza in October 2024.
Sinwar was considered to be one of the main figures connecting Hamas’s political and armed wings, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and an architect of the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on 7 October 2023. He reportedly helped establish Hamas’s internal security force (“al-Majd”) in 1988.
As a long time Hamas activist, he was arrested by Israel on a number of occasions, spending a total of 24 years in prison, and was among the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Hamas’s freeing of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. In September 2015 Sinwar was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the US Department of State.
Sinwar joined Hamas’s Politburo in 2017 and became the the group’s leader in Gaza. In August 2024, he was elected as Hamas’s overall leader, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated by Israel while visiting Tehran.
His older brother, Mohammed Sinwar, is a senior leader in the al-Qassam Brigades.