Yahya Sinwar

Yahya Sinwar, widely known as the architect of the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, was a key Hamas leader who served as the Gaza Political Bureau chief from 2017 until July 2024 and organization-wide Political Bureau chief from July 2024 -- following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh -- until he was killed by the Israeli military in Rafah on October 16, 2024. Many U.S. anti-Zionist activists, including numerous Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters, have expressed admiration for Sinwar.

An early member of Hamas, formed in 1987, Sinwar founded and headed the Palestinian terror group’s internal security apparatus and served about two decades in Israeli prisons for his involvement in planning the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and executing Palestinians suspected of informing for Israel. These killings earned him the monicker of “the butcher of Khan Younis,” the south Gazan city where he was born and raised. Sinwar was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit deal. He had been designated by the United States as a terrorist in 2015. 

Sinwar is viewed as a symbol of resistance among many U.S. anti-Zionist organizations, including the extreme anti-Zionist group Samidoun, which was sanctioned by the U.S. government in October 2024 for being a “sham charity” that raises funds for U.S.-designated terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Samidoun-branded banners and T-shirts featuring Sinwar’s face and framed images of him have also appeared at rallies sponsored by radical anti-Zionist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL).

Both preceding and following his death, Sinwar’s writings and book have had a long-reaching impact in U.S. anti-Zionist spaces and have been cited in obituaries, essays, and social media postings by student activist groups. After his death, many anti-Zionist activists, groups, publications and student organizations including SJP chapters, WOL, Samidoun and others, lionized, mourned, and honored Sinwar.