Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
On August 6, The Islamic Resistance Movement of Hamas announced they had chosen Yahya Sinwar, 61, as the head of their political bureau, succeeding Ismail Haniyah who was assassinated on July 31 in Tehran by Israel.
Sinwar is regarded as the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the deadliest attack in Israeli history. The attack left around 1,200 people dead and about 240 taken as hostages in Gaza.
Israel began a revenge attack on the people of Gaza which has left 40,000 dead, mostly women and children, with hundreds of thousands injured, or missing under the rubble, and millions displaced from their homes.
The international reaction has called for a ceasefire to save lives, and a fresh push for negotiations on a two-state solution that is supported by the US and the majority of UN members.
Sinwar, formerly the head of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, was born in Khan Yunis refugee camp to a family who had been expelled from Ashkelon during the 1948 Palestine War.
Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel in 1989, and served 22 years until his release in a 2011 prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar was one among 1,026 Palestinians set free after being held in Israel without charges, trial or family visits, including women and children.
On May 16, 2018, in an unexpected announcement on Al Jazeera, Sinwar stated that Hamas would pursue "peaceful, popular resistance" to the Israeli occupation.
After three weeks of conflict in the Gaza war, Sinwar proposed the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli confinement in exchange for the release of all the hostages kidnapped in the conflict.
Although the Israeli public, and especially the families of the hostages, have demanded vocally for the Israeli government to agree to a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused.
Yasser Arafat, 1929-2004, was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004. Arafat was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004.
From 1983 to 1993, Arafat began to shift his approach from open conflict with the Israelis to negotiation. In 1988, he acknowledged Israel's right to exist and sought a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1994, he returned to Palestine, settling in Gaza.
He engaged in a series of negotiations with the Israeli government, including the Madrid Conference of 1991, the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David Summit. The success of the negotiations in Oslo led to Arafat being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres in 1994.
The PLO and Fatah had laid down their arms and pledged to seek the freedom of Palestine through non-violent means.
Over time, Fatah's support among the Palestinians declined with the growth of the armed Hamas. In late 2004, after living under siege for two years in Ramallah by the Israeli army, Arafat died without having achieved freedom for his people, despite using peaceful means and negotiations, instead of arms.
Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013, is regarded as the father of modern democratic South Africa. Mandela remained on US terrorist lists until 2008 because the African National Congress (ANC), the political party with which Mandela was associated, had used armed resistance to the apartheid government in South Africa.
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