The mastermind of the Hamas attack, Yahya Sinwar, who initiated the Israeli-Palestinian war years ago, remained alive, and Israeli officials vowed to kill him.
Sinwar has remained obsessive, disciplined, and dictatorial as the Hamas' top leader inside the Palestinian territory.
Sinwar Remains Alive Amid Israel-Hamas War
Israeli officials have vowed to kill the militant group, mainly Sinwar, who ruled Gaza since 2007. Sinwar remained alive after going to seven weeks into the war as he continued to hide at the helm of the Hamas fighters while still in battle with the Israeli forces.
Sinwar led the group's hostage negotiations with over 240 hostages that the militants held captive on the October 7 attack. Sinwar's political fate would be based on how the war would end and if Palestinians felt that they gained anything with their immense losses since the recent Israeli ground invasion.
Hani al-Masri, a veteran Palestinian analyst, said that Palestinians would feel they gained something despite the destruction if Sinwar would win the release of all Palestinian prisoners and the lifting of the 16-year blockade of Gaza.
Al-Masri added that it would be a big problem for Sinwar if he were not able to win the war, as Palestinian people would say that there was destruction, yet they did not obtain something in return.
Sinwar, together with Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas'Hamas' armed wing, designed the surprise October 7 attack into southern Israel. The surprise attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized Israel's military and intelligence establishment.
However, the attack resulted in devastating Israeli retaliation that killed thousands of people in Gaza.
The Israeli army's chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Sinwar was a murderer and he was the longest nightmare of the Israelis. He said that the Hamas proved to the whole world that they are much worse than ISIS, an Islamic State group.
Palestinians respect Sinwar a lot for going against Israel, who chose to stay in Gaza to protect its people, unlike other Hamas leaders who migrated to another country.
Sinwar said in one of his public speeches, "I will walk back home after this meeting," after inviting Israel to assassinate him, but he returned, shook hands, and took selfies with people in the streets.
Hamas Domination Over Gaza Strip
Hamas was founded in 1989 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza during the first intifada, which was recognized by widespread protests against Israel's occupation.
Hamas is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement and had a partnership with one of the Sunni world's most prominent groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the 1920s.
The group has killed many Israeli civilians and soldiers in their suicide bombings in Israel. The US State Department, European Union, and other Western countries labeled them as a terrorist organization in 1997.
Hamas won the 2006 and 2007 parliamentary elections and took over the Gaza Strip from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
