“RADICAL AND PRAGMATIC”
He was serving four life terms for the killing of two Israeli soldiers when he became the most senior of 1,027 Palestinians released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
Sinwar later became a senior commander in the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, before taking overall leadership of the movement in Gaza.
While his predecessor, Haniyeh, had encouraged efforts by Hamas to present a moderate face to the world, Sinwar has preferred to force the Palestinian issue to the fore by more violent means.
Sinwar is said to have strived for a single Palestinian state bringing together the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank – controlled by Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party – and annexed east Jerusalem.
According to US think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations, he has vowed to punish anyone obstructing reconciliation with Fatah, the rival political movement with which Hamas engaged in factional fighting after elections in 2006.
