Yahya Sinwar wants to die a martyr, according to former interrogator – 2024-02-17 18:15:51

Yahya Sinwarthe top leader of Hamas in Gazais a “very intelligent” man with “murderer’s eyes” who will not flee from Stripe because he prefers to die a “martyr”, as described by the former head of the interrogation department of the Israeli secret services, Micha Kobiwho interrogated him “at least 150 hours” in the late 1980s.

“I arrested him in 1989 when (then spiritual head of Hamas) Ahmed Yasin told us during an interrogation that he had appointed him to be the man to lead the unit called ‘Majid’ (glory in Arabic)”who was in charge of investigating whether there were Palestinians collaborating with the Israeli forces, Kobi told EFE in a phone call.

Sinwar confessed that he had killed twelve suspected of cooperating with the Israelis. «Today I can assure you that none of them cooperated with the Israelis, none, but he killed them with a butcher’s machete»says Kobi.

He adds that he forced the last of them to dig his own grave and that, afterwards, “he put him in alive and filled it with oil until he died.” “It’s dramatic.”

Questioned in the eighties

Kobi explains that Sinwar was initially arrested in 1988 because a homemade bomb he was preparing in his home exploded and he was injured.

«He was interrogated but did not confess that he was a member of Hamas, although he was detained for several years. Later when Ahmed Yasin (detained in 1989) told me that he was a member of Hamas, I took him back to the interrogation room.remember.

At first Sinwar refused to admit or tell anything, so Kobi took him to Ahmad Yasin (killed by Israel in 2004), “who dictated a fatwa to him, told him that he had to tell the Shabak (Israeli intelligence services) everything, not to worry because they would build a new organization again when he was soon released.”

«I was the one who took from him all the information I needed to continue working to arrest more people. “He gave me the names of hundreds and hundreds of Hamas people, which allowed me to arrest more people.”he adds.

Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel in 1989 for plotting the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian “collaborators,” but was released in 2011 as part of a swap of 1,047 Palestinian prisoners for the return of the Israeli soldier. Gilad Shalit.

In 2017 he was elected head of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip, overseeing both political and military operations, behind Ismail Haniyehwho chairs Hamas’ political bureau from his exile in Qatar.

Kobi does not hesitate to describe Sinwar as someone “very intelligent”, who even then wanted to destroy Israel. “He wanted to kill all the Jews in the world and then the infidels”.

“Murderer’s eyes”

“He was not ashamed to tell me that he and all the Hamas members were going to enter the settlements and kill many. This was in 1989.”rememora Kobi.

The former high command of the Israeli intelligence services, who boasts of knowing the Koran perfectly and speaking fluent Arabic, emphasizes that the Islamist group could not carry out its plans then, because along with Sinwar, another 500 members of the military wing were detained. of Hamas.

“But, unfortunately,” adds Kobi, Sinwar and those 500 detainees were among the 1,047 prisoners released in exchange for Shalit in 2011: “I was against it, because I knew what he was going to do.”

“I knew he had the character to do it, I knew he had a very deep hatred against us, the Israelis and the Jews and he really had the eyes of a murderer”he declares.

Sinwar, together with Mohamed Deif, leader of the armed wing of Hamas, are considered to be the masterminds of the attack against Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 dead and more than 250 kidnapped; and that was the trigger for the war in Gaza, with more than 28,500 Gazans dead.

First images of Sinwar after the attack

Last night, the Israeli Army showed the first images of Sinwar since that attack, in which he is seen walking backwards through a tunnel on October 10, along with two of his children, his wife and his brother, according to Israeli investigations.

“They look rushed and they only carry a suitcase,” says Kobi about those images.

Kobi says that although Sinwar speaks Hebrew very well, the meetings with him were always in Arabic “because the interrogation is better done in his language” and emphasizes that, after having interrogated him for 150 hours or more, he knows him better than his own family. , because “from the age of thirteen he began to go to see Ahmad Yasid to pray with him.”

«I know him very well, and I am sure that he will not escape (from Gaza), his character does not allow it. He is a very proud man, he wants to continue until the end, he wants to be a martyr, he wants to be like Saladin Al Ayubi (who conquered Jerusalem from the Crusades in 1187) »Explain.

“He is already the head of Hamas and what he understands is that he is the hero of Hamas, the hero of Islam.” EFE (I)