On Thursday, October 16, 2023, Commander Yahya Sinwar was killed after a gun battle with the IOF in Rafah. He was found above ground, wearing a combat vest loaded with extra magazines, hand grenades, and an AK by his side, alongside three of his bodyguards.

He was not hiding in a tunnel among civilians or using hostages as human shields to protect himself, as Israel often claimed. Most certainly, Sinwar was not dressed up as a woman to avoid detection.

Following the gun battle with Sinwar and his comrades in arms, the IOF sent a drone into the house for surveillance, and the drone operation noticed someone alive resembling Sinwar. After seeing the drone, Sinwar threw a large stick at it as a final act of defiance. His other arm was injured, and it appears he managed to apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

By the time the soldiers entered the house, Sinwar was already dead. They took pictures and a video of his body, which were posted on social media. Upon learning of this from international media, Prime Minister Netanyahu threatened to punish the soldiers involved for not following the chain of command in releasing the pictures.

Netanyahu could no longer fabricate a narrative about how and where Sinwar was killed. His soldiers had spilled the beans, preventing him from lying like he did about the raped women and the beheaded babies after Hamas broke the siege around Gaza on October 7.

Here is a list of items found on Yahya Sinwar after his death: AK-47, rosary, extra magazines, two boxes of bullets, a roll of Mentos, fingernail clippers, small electric tape, and an M-16 belonging to a killed IOF soldier. Lebanese political commentator Hadi Nasrallah tweeted after Sinwar's martyrdom,

"Israel wants you to call a man who fought till his last breath a 'coward,' and their perverted soldiers 'heroes.'" When the owner of the house where Sinwar was killed was asked for a reaction about losing his home, he said, "That is a small price to pay," adding, "Nothing more valuable than the life of Yahya Sinwar (Abu Ibrahim)."

To Palestinians, martyrdom is an honor. Even a Haaretz reader with the name "Ann" commented four days after Sinwar's death: "What it really did was show him as a warrior who resisted to the end and who they couldn't get to without a drone. The video posting was the dumbest thing to do." The IOF soldiers stated, "The killing of the Hamas leader was largely a matter of chance and luck, not based on intelligence."

Nasir Khan eulogized Sinwar in a Facebook post: "Sinwar died while resisting his killers, but the fact that he resisted does not make his death any less a murder. His killing is part of an illegal imperialist-backed war whose aim is the extermination of Gaza's population and annexation of the territory illegally occupied by Israel since 1967."

Two days later, a Haaretz reader with the name "Strength" posted: "If Israel is smart, they'll let the aid trucks flood in now by the hundreds and lift those restrictions the WHO is talking about. I thought Bibi's speech was actually fairly decent, but the problem is that by now nobody believes a word he says."

Omar Abdaljawad Omar wrote about Commander Sinwar in Mondoweiss on October 21, 2024: "Their newspapers describe Israeli leaders as 'psychopathic,' manipulative, calculating, and indifferent even to Israeli captives. Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders have fought and died to free their prisoners. The contrast couldn’t be starker between a leadership driven by self-preservation and detached power and a leadership bound to the struggle for liberation, both personal and collective." Omar concluded, "Even if Israel annihilates every last Palestinian, the world will know the truth — it was not the Israelis who won, but their machines."

Dan Cohen tweeted after Sinwar's death: "Israel made the mistake of publishing footage of Yahya Sinwar's last moments. Wearing a keffiyeh and severely injured, he threw a stick at the drone filming him – a final act of defiance against the Zionist occupation. In his death, he became a legend."

Sinwar, from Khan Younis refugee camp, was originally from the Palestinian town of Asqalan. Coincidentally, he spent most of his 23-year prison term in Ashkelon, the same town where he was born, later renamed by Israel.

Okaz, an Arabic weekly newspaper in one of the Gulf states, published a picture of Sinwar's body surrounded by a few IOF soldiers with the caption, "Hamas bedoun rass" (in English: "Hamas is headless"). The publication summarized Sinwar's life:

• Bachelor's Degree in Hebrew from the Islamic University in Gaza
• Close associate of Hamas founder Ahmad Yasin, assassinated by Israel in 2004
• Arrested three times by the IOF
• In 1982: Detained for four months under the Administrative Detention Act and released without charges
• 1985: Established Hamas Intelligence to monitor Palestinian collaborators, serving eight months in jail
• 1988: Arrested and sentenced to four death sentences for abducting and killing two Israeli soldiers and executing two Palestinian collaborators

During his imprisonment, Sinwar attempted to dig a tunnel under Ashkelon's prison to escape, but a prison guard discovered it. After more than 20 years, he was freed in the 2011 POW exchange, along with more than 1,000 Palestinians in exchange for a single Israeli soldier.

Early in the Ukraine war, President Zelensky was offered a helicopter ride for safety to any European country. He refused, asking instead for ammunition, and was praised as a hero in the West.

Sinwar similarly expressed that he wanted to die as a martyr, not from COVID or a heart attack, and to one day pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque in a liberated Jerusalem. Yahya Sinwar rejected an opportunity to survive and leave Gaza in exchange for allowing Egypt to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal. "My life is not worth more than the people of Gaza," he said. Instead of being praised as a hero, the West labeled him a "terrorist."

Commander Yahya Sinwar lived as a legend and died as a hero. Rest in power, Commander Yahya Sinwar!

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelancer for Islamicity.com and ColumbusFreePress.com. He can be reached at [email protected].