VILE Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar reportedly made a victim bury his own brother alive when he ran the terror group's counter intelligence wing.
Israel’s most wanted terrorist – dubbed a "dead man walking" by PM Netanyahu – was in charge of rooting out suspected spies in the late 1980s.
As leader of Hamas in Gaza he is seen as the man most responsible for the October 7 slaughter that saw 1,400 people butchered in southern Israel including pregnant women, children and babies.
Hundreds more were taken hostage and are thought to be held in a warren of tunnels underneath Gaza city.
Horrific details of Sinwar’s past emerged as Israel continued its Gaza blitz, which Hamas-run health officials say has so far killed over 10,000 people, including 4,100 children.
UN boss Antonio Guterres warned Gaza was becoming “a graveyard for children” while the Pentagon confirmed that "thousands" of civilians had died in bombardments.
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At the weekend Netanyau called Hamas boss Sinwar a "little Hitler in a bunker", adding: “He has no care for his people."
And Israel Defence Forces spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht compared him to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden for his role in the Hamas atrocities.
Lt Col Hecht said: “Yahya Sinwar is the face of evil. He is the mastermind behind this, like Bin Laden was [with the 9/11 US attacks].”
The Israelis urged Gazans to kill or hand over the bogeyman themselves as this would “hasten the end to the war”.
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Gaza-born Sinwar, 61, was jailed in the late 1980s, for a string of brutal crimes including the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers.
At the time he led Hamas’ feared internal security wing, known as al-Majd, or Glory, force.
A former interrogator from Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service said Sinwar had boasted about his role in a particularly sadistic killing.
Ex-spy Micha Kobi told the Financial Times that Sinwar revealed how they meted out punishment to a man accused of spying for Israel.
The alleged collaborator was not from Hamas, but a rival Palestinian faction.
Sinwar summoned the suspect’s brother, who was a member of Hamas, and “made him bury his own brother alive,” Kobi said.
His ruthless terror tactics earned him the nickname the "butcher of Khan Younis" after Gaza's second city, where he was born.
He was convicted by a secret Israeli military tribunal for the murder of 12 Palestinians, including the man buried alive, the FT reported.
He served 22 years in Israeli prisons and rose to be the leader of jailed Hamas fighters.
One account suggested he punished a prisoner for talking to an Israeli by pushing his face into a stove.
But he was freed in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap that saw over 1,000 Palestinians released in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been kidnapped and held in Gaza.
Sinwar was officially listed as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” but the US State Department in 2015.
Two years later he was elected as leader of Hamas in Gaza, replacing Ismail Haniyeh who remains the group’s overall leader and splits his time between Qatar and Turkey.
Evil plans
Israel suspects that Sinwar drew up the plans for the October 7 surprise attack with Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military al-Qassam brigades.
The surprise attack saw hundreds of fighters storm into Israel by air, sea and land and overrun military bases, lightly defended kibbutzes and a music festival.
The carnage that unfolded was the deadliest attack on Jews since the end of the Second World War.
Experts suspect Sinwar was behind the hostage taking after his first hand experience of being involved in a trade.
Israel responded with non-stop airstrikes, a full siege of Gaza, and a ground offensive which it claims has cut the strip in half.
But US officials have questioned Israel over its plans for immediately after the war.
President Biden warned Netanyahu not to make the same mistakes that America did in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, that ultimately led to the US to invade Afghanistan and later Iraq.
It comes as embattled PM Netanyahu is locked in a coalition with the most far-right government Israel has ever had.
His heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu was suspended on Sunday after claiming that dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza was a "possibility".
He also claimed "there are no non-combatants in Gaza," and said letting in any humanitarian aid would constitute "a failure".
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Asked if nuking Gaza, which is home to some two million people, was an option, he replied: "That's one way."
Netanyahu insisted his comments were "not based in reality".
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