Born on 19 October 1962 in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, Yahya al-Sinwar is the head of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. In 1948, his family was forcefully displaced from their home in the occupied Palestinian city of Asqalan.

Al-Sinwar received his elementary and secondary education in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. He graduated with a BA in the Arabic Language from the Islamic University of Gaza.

Between 1982 and 1987, Al-Sinwar was elected as a member of the student union at the Islamic University of Gaza. Along with Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, Al-Sinwar formed a band for national songs (chanting).

Between 1982 and 1988, al-Sinwar led a number of popular protests against the Israeli occupation. In 1988, the Israeli occupation authorities detained Al-Sinwar and handed him four life sentences, of which he spent 23 years, four of them in solitary confinement.

During his incarceration, al-Sinwar served as head of the senior leadership committee for Hamas detainees in Israeli prisons. Al-Sinwar, along with his fellow Palestinian detainees, had led a number of hunger strikes against the harsh detention conditions in Israeli jails.

Having learned Hebrew during his imprisonment, Al-Sinwar wrote and translated a number of political and security books, writings, and novels into Arabic.

Al-Sinwar was released from Israeli prisons in the Wafa al-Ahrar (True Promise of the Free Men) prisoner exchange deal in 2011 between Hamas and the Israeli occupation.

Having played a significant role in setting the terms of the 2011 swap deal, al-Sinwar was moved to solitary confinement before reaching the agreement.

After his release from Israeli occupation prisons as part of the 2011 Wafa Al-Ahrar prisoners swap deal, Al-Sinwar got married in 2012 and is now a father of three children. In 2012, Al-Sinwar was elected as a member of the Hamas politburo in the Gaza Strip. Two years later, he was elected the head of the Hamas politburo in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli occupation forces demolished al-Sinwar’s home in 1989, bombed it during the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, and bombarded it again during the May 2021 Israeli offensive against the besieged enclave.