Updated Oct. 17, 2024 at 8:30 p.m.*
Yahya Sinwar, architect of the Oct. 7 attack who consolidated absolute control over Hamas in August, has been Israel’s Public Enemy No. 1 for several years. On Thursday, Israeli military officials said Sinwar was among a group of people killed in Gaza in a recent clash.
The death of the 61-year-old militant is a major victory for Israel. For Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, the reaction will undoubtedly be mixed, as some view him as a liberation hero and others blame him for the Oct. 7 attack that unleashed a massive Israeli response that has killed tens of thousands and largely destroyed Gaza. Below is a recent look into how Gazans viewed Sinwar, by Beirut-based Daraj media:
-Analysis-
Two months before he was chosen as Hamas’ new overall leader following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Al Jazeera announced that it would broadcast a documentary about Yahya Sinwar called The Man Who Stopped the World on One Foot. The Qatari-owned television network didn’t offer details about the documentary or the date of its broadcast. But the film’s poster and title prompted dozens of comments around the Arab world, including from Palestinians inside Gaza.
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These noted the exaggerated hero status given to Sinwar and the irony of the title, as many Palestinians have lost limbs in the war, and now, too, only have one foot. “This is half of the truth. As for the other half, of course [Al Jazeera] doesn’t dare say that Gazans are left without feet to stand on — or the electricity to watch the documentary,” wrote Tayseer Abdullah, a Palestinian political analyst based in Gaza.
While Al Jazeera later deleted the post without elaborating, the name of the documentary raised lingering questions among Palestinians in Gaza: Are they the target audience for the film, which tells the story of the man who controls their destinies? Are they the only ones directly impacted, at least physically, by his decisions and actions?
Reality on the ground
Amjad Abu Kush, an activist from Rafah, said that only those who benefit from Hamas welcomed the documentary, while many Palestinians in Gaza ridiculed it — as well as Al Jazeera’s role in the war itself. He said the network has exaggerated Hamas’ military power, arguing that this is used as a “winning card” to continue Qatar’s role “in guarding and containing” Hamas in coordination with the United States.
Abu Kush pointed to an April statement from the Qatar Embassy in Washington — in response to criticism from a U.S. Representative — reminding that “mediation role exists only because we were asked by the U.S. in 2012 to play this role since, regrettably, Israel and Hamas refuse to speak to each other directly.”
The documentary is unlikely to change the reality on the ground.
Karim Joudah, an activist from the northern town of Jabaliya who is sheltering in Rafah, also ridiculed the documentary, saying that people from Gaza are pro-occupied by the harsh living conditions of the past seven months. Most people don’t have electricity or internet to look at Facebook posts and documentaries; “Those who have an internet connection are lucky,” he said.
Palestinian writer and researcher Karim Abu Al-Rous, who is from Rafah, said that Al Jazeera is trying to restore Sinwar’s popular legitimacy, but that the documentary is unlikely to change the reality on the ground. People in Gaza see him “as the one controlling the fate of the war, whether it continues or ends, whether a hostage exchange will happen or not,” he said.
Vague rhetoric
Beyond questions over Al Jazeera’s influence and the documentary’s goal, a recent speech by Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida has sparked larger questions about Hamas. “Suddenly, 200 days later, the barbaric Nazi army is still stuck in the sands of Gaza without a goal or a horizon,” Abu Obeida said in a speech on April 13.
He used vague terms such as “the nation” and “the free people of the world,” rather than directing his speech to the so-called “home front,” the people of Gaza. And he praised Iran’s attack on Israel, saying it “set new rules, established important equations, and confused the calculations of the enemy and those behind it.”
We lost hope in the movement in 2014.
That same day, the Israeli army posted a picture showing members of its Nahal Brigade having fun at a large luncheon held near the Netzarim Corridor, which divides Gaza into north and south. The troops didn’t show any sign of fear, something that the people of Gaza are well aware of.
Joudah said that speeches like Abu Obeida’s have become a subject of sarcasm among Palestinians in Gaza. “We see that the army, which did not leave an inch in the Gaza Strip, suddenly became stuck,” he said. “The reality on the ground says that the army is present in the center of the Strip, and its outskirts from all directions. It can enter at any moment it decides to enter.”
Unanswered questions
Wadah Abu Jama, a Palestinian poet from Gaza City, said the majority of Hamas government employees managed to get their families out of Gaza; only those who can’t afford the costs of survival remain in this “open prison,” he said.
Any talk from Hamas directed at the domestic audience will be ridiculed.
He rejects claims of steadfast support for Hamas and resistance, pointing to the more than 100,000 people who have left Gaza, and the tens of thousands others who are waiting to do so, “not out of weakness or defeat, but because they realize that they are dying and sacrificing for nothing.”
“Palestinians in Gaza no longer tolerate sacrificing their children, homes and or lives for the sake of Iran — for lifting sanctions on its funds or improving its position in the nuclear agreements,” he said.
The people of Gaza still remember the 2014 war, when Hamas leaders decided to end fighting based on the same conditions that were sent in the first week of the war. “We lost hope in the movement,” said Abu Jama.
Abu Kush, too, said that people have “completely lost confidence in everything the movement says. Any talk from Hamas directed at the domestic audience will be ridiculed.”
Yet for the people of Gaza, several questions remain: Why are we being killed now? What’s the reason? If we are in a liberation battle, what are its features? Who ordered the Oct. 7 attack? And with their home territory having become unlivable, what future, if any, remains for Gaza?
*This article, originally published May 18, 2024, was updated Oct. 17, 2024, with reports that Yahya Sinwar has been killed.
