BEIRUT: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is unrepentant about the Oct 7 attacks a year ago, people in contact with him say, despite unleashing a Zionist entity invasion that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to his Gaza homeland and rained destruction on ally Hezbollah.

For Sinwar, 62, architect of the Hamas cross-border raids that became the deadliest day in Zionist entity’s history, armed struggle remains the only way to force the creation of a Palestinian nation, four Palestinian officials and two sources from governments in the Middle East said.

The Oct 7 attacks killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and captured 250 hostages, according to Zionist entity tallies, in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Zionist entity responded by launching a massive offensive, killing 41,600 people and displacing 1.9 million, according to Palestinian health authorities and UN figures.

Now the conflict has spread to Lebanon, with Zionist entity heavily degrading Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, including killing most of its leadership. Hamas patron Tehran is at risk of being pulled into open war with Zionist entity.

Sinwar has drawn Iran and its entire "Axis of Resistance” - comprising Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iraqi militias - into conflict with Zionist entity, said Hassan Hassan, an author and researcher on Islamic groups. "We’re seeing now the ripple effects of Oct7. Sinwar’s gamble didn’t work,” Hassan said, suggesting that the Axis of Resistance may never recover. "What Zionist entity did to Hezbollah in two weeks is almost equal to a whole year of degrading Hamas in Gaza. With Hezbollah, three layers of leadership have been eliminated, its military command has been decimated, and its important leader Hassan Nasrallah has been assassinated,” added Hassan.

However, Sinwar’s grip on the Hamas remains unwavering, despite some signs of dissent among Gazans. He was chosen as the Islamist movement’s overall leader after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh was killed in July by a suspected Zionist entity strike during a visit to Tehran. Zionist entity has not confirmed its involvement in the strike.

Operating from the shadows of a network of labyrinthine tunnels under Gaza, two Zionist entity sources said Sinwar and his brother, also a top commander, appear to have so far survived Zionist entity airstrikes, which have reportedly killed his deputy Mohammed Deif and other senior leaders.

Sinwar operates in secrecy, moving constantly and using trusted messengers for non-digital communication, according to three Hamas officials and one regional official. He has not been seen in public since Oct 7.

Over months of failed ceasefire talks, led by Qatar and Egypt that focused on swapping prisoners for hostages, Sinwar was the sole decision-maker, three Hamas sources said. Negotiators would wait for days for responses filtered through a secretive chain of messengers. Hamas and Zionist entity did not respond to requests for comment.

Sinwar’s high tolerance for suffering, both for himself and for the Palestinian people, in the name of a cause, was apparent when he helped negotiate the 2011 exchange of 1,027 prisoners, himself included, for one kidnapped Zionist entity soldier held in Gaza. The kidnapping by Hamas had led to a Zionist entity assault on the coastal enclave and thousands of Palestinian deaths.

Half a dozen people who know Sinwar told Reuters his resolve was shaped by an impoverished childhood in Gaza’s refugee camps and a brutal 22 years in Zionist entity custody, including a period in Ashkelon, the town his parents called home before fleeing after the 1948 Arab-Zionist entity war.

The question of hostages and prisoner swaps is deeply personal for Sinwar, said all the sources, who requested anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters. 

He has vowed to free all Palestinian prisoners held in Zionist entity. Sinwar became a member of Hamas soon after its founding in the 1980s, adopting the group’s radical Islamist ideology, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in historic Palestine and opposes Zionist entity’s existence.

Before the war, Sinwar, would sometimes tell of his early life in Gaza during decades of Zionist entity occupation, once saying his mother made clothes from empty UN food-aid sacks, according to Gaza resident Wissam Ibrahim, who has met him. In a semi-autobiographical novel written in prison, Sinwar described scenes of troops bulldozing Palestinian houses, "like a monster crushing its prey’s bones,” before Zionist entity withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

A ruthless enforcer tasked with punishing Palestinians suspected of informing for Zionist entity, Sinwar then made his name as a prison leader, emerging as a street hero from a 22-year Zionist entity sentence for masterminding the abduction and murder of two Zionist entity soldiers and four Palestinians. He then quickly rose to the top of the Hamas ranks. 

His understanding of the everyday hardships and brutal realities in Gaza was well-received by Gazans and made people feel at ease, four journalists and three Hamas officials said, despite his fearsome reputation and explosive anger. Sinwar is regarded by Arab and Palestinian officials as the architect of Hamas’ strategy and military capabilities, bolstered through his strong ties with Iran, which he visited in 2012. — Reuters