A new video showing now-deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wandering around southern Gaza with his head covered in some kind of blanket has been published.
Appearing like Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, the new video is supposed to portray the Hamas leader as fighting in close quarters with the IDF.
It is supposed to convey that Sinwar went toe-to-toe with tier-one special force operators and fought to the end. This is quite far from the truth.
The new footage is part of the documentary series – What is Hidden is Greater – broadcast on the Qatari state-owned television channel, Al Jazeera.
New Al-Jazeera documentary shows their “journalists” accompanying Sinwar and other H×mas terrorists, during and after the October 7 massacre.Al-Jazeera should be banned everywhere, just like it is banned in UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel.pic.twitter.com/zzDZ7fQZmn
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) January 25, 2025
As Sinwar wandered around southern Gaza in the way that he did as seen in the depiction, it is not clear why he was dressed in the way that he was.
According to a report, he was supposed to be disguised as an elderly civilian and so he was able to approach areas where the IDF was present, including one with a tank in the background.
Who is Yahya Sinwar?
While the video is making the rounds in pro-Palestinian circles with Sinwar praised for his heroism, the reality of the video raises more questions than answers.
Why was Sinwar off on his own with only a few men? What was the point of this forlorn journey? What was the point of the quest?
Sinwar was not just some battalion commander in the field, he was supposed to be leading Hamas in Gaza.
The leadership of Hamas in Gaza was a goal Sinwar had worked toward for many years.
Why, in the end, did he wander off from the central camps area and Khan Yunis, where he had many fighters, and go to southern Gaza basically by himself with just a few comrades?
Why would a commander and leader do this?
THERE IS some information one needs to know about Sinwar first for the sake of context.
Born in 1962 in Khan Yunis, Sinwar grew up in Gaza, which was then run by Israel.
In those days, the Israelis ran the civil administration and there were Israeli police present. By the 1980s, Sinwar was in his twenties and he joined the new Hamas movement when it emerged.
He was known for murdering Palestinians. He was a kind of mafia thug. Sent to an Israeli prison, he rose up in the ranks of the movement and was released in 2011.
From that point, he built up his power base in Gaza until he took over leadership of Hamas in Gaza in 2017.
This was an important moment for him. He also became the political head of Hamas in August 2024. This gave him tremendous power. He had planned the Great March of Return protests and also several escalations with Israel, including the May 2021 war.
He was testing Israel on his road to the October 7 invasion.
After the October 7 massacre, Sinwar spent time in the bunkers and tunnels under Khan Yunis. This is where Sinwar was from, so for him, this was his home turf.
When the IDF went into Khan Yunis with the 98th Division in late 2023 through April 2024, it’s not clear if Sinwar remained close to the fighting.
The IDF’s tactics were relatively slow and plodding so that Sinwar could have stayed close to the ever-moving front line. When the IDF left, Hamas returned to Khan Yunis. In May the IDF went into Rafah but since Khan Yunis was not empty, the Hamas battalions in Rafah were able to retreat and resupply via ratlines running back to Khan Yunis.
Sinwar likely could have returned at this time and commanded in relative safety throughout the next months from Khan Yunis or the central camps.
We know that some high-level members of Hamas, including the Khan Yunis commanders and Mohammed Deif, gathered at a house in Al Mawasi from time to time.
Deif was apparently killed in an airstrike at that house. Sinwar increasingly leaned on his brother Mohammed Sinwar as other commanders were killed.
By this time Hamas had gone to ground, and its men were operating only in small cells in many areas, they always wore civilian clothes and often didn’t carry weapons in the open, stashing them in homes for easy access.
Hamas now moved its command and control to former schools and also to hospitals. The IDF bombed and raided some of these locations. It did not go into the central camp areas though; Nuseirat, Bureij, Deir el-Balah, and Maghazi.
Hamas likely knew the IDF would not enter this area because of fear of harming the hostages. At some point, Sinwar went to Rafah in July or August.
It was believed that six hostages were kept close nearby, with some reports saying that they may have served as shields for him.
But this remains unsubstantiated because the videos now emerging do not show him with hostages. The hostages in question were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. The bodies of these hostages were recovered on August 31 by the IDF. They had been murdered not long before they were found.
DAYS BEFORE the hostage bodies were found, a living hostage Qaid Farhan al-Qadi was rescued on August 27, 2024. Qadi is a Bedouin Israeli, one of several taken hostage by Hamas. His captors had fled, leaving him in southern Gaza.
Throughout September and into early October it appears Sinwar may have wandered around southern Gaza. There is a lack of clarity about what he was doing at this time, but he ran into an IDF patrol in Rafah in southern Gaza.
He was with several Hamas members. They scattered after running into the IDF patrol. Sinwar’s body was found the next day in a building after the IDF had used a drone and a tank in the operation. Sinwar was portrayed as a hero by his supporters, with many images of him created to make him seem stronger, more able, and tougher than he was in real life.
The new footage of Sinwar wandering around in Gaza adds to questions about his last days or months. Why would a commander and political leader end up like this?
He wasn’t being hunted. He chose to go to southern Gaza. He could have remained in Khan Yunis or central Gaza.
It’s highly unusual for military or political leaders to end up being killed like this. When commanders or political leaders end up killed, it is usually because their country had collapsed and they were on the run.
Consider the case of Darius III, hunted to Bactria by Alexander the Great, or Paraguayan leader Francisco Solano Carrillo who was killed at the end of the Paraguayan war. Benito Mussolini ended the same war, on the run, his power having been stripped from him. In rare cases, leaders die by accident in plane crashes or things like that, but in wartime, it’s rare they end up like Sinwar.
Is it possible Sinwar was pushed out by Hamas or he had decided to leave the group in the hands of his brother and end his life?
If he chose to wander off and seek a “martyr’s death” then was his decision to go to Rafah a way to make sure that would happen?
In October the IDF was wrapping up most operations in Gaza. It was focused on fighting Hezbollah. The IDF had settled into running the Netzarim and Philadelphi Corridors.
The only reason Sinwar was in Rafah was to find the IDF. He could have avoided it and spent time rebuilding Hamas in Gaza.
Did Sinwar think Hamas was losing? This seems unlikely since he had seen the worst of the IDF onslaught in late 2023 and early 2024 and he must have known that the IDF would tire of this war.
Was he pushed out by machinations in Doha among the Hamas leaders who live abroad? It is conceivable that they conspired against him.
After Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed, it is possible that Sinwar lost out in some kind of internal power struggle. There is no good explanation for why he wandered off to his death. The new videos show how tired he looked wandering around Gaza.
