Martyr or coward? Israel and Hamas present conflicting narratives about Sinwar’s death

The video depicts a desperate and abandoned man trying to attack a sophisticated military drone with a piece of wood. Or perhaps it shows a defiant hero who looks the enemy in the eye as he fights to the end. Depends on who’s watching.

When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the death of Yahya Sinwar last week, it released several photos and a video showing the Hamas leader in his final moments of life and after his death.

It was supposed to be proof that the man they said was one of the main architects of the October 7 terrorist attack was actually dead, and a warning to Israel’s enemies that no matter where they hide, the IDF will eventually find them.

However, the decision to release the images appears to have backfired, at least in part, as they were used to celebrate Sinwar for having died as a martyr and resistance fighter.

Now, Israel is in damage control mode, releasing older photos and videos of Sinwar hiding in tunnels with stashes of cash, trying to portray the Hamas leader as a selfish man who only cared about himself.

Gershon Baskin, a Middle East expert, peace activist and former Israeli hostage negotiator who used to speak to Hamas through parallel channels, said the release of the images was misguided and likely motivated by Israeli politics.

As Israel’s negotiator, Baskin mediated the 2011 prisoner swap, which resulted in the exchange of more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier who had been held in Gaza for five years. Yahya Sinwar was among the Palestinian prisoners released in that deal.

“It’s all about controlling the narrative on Netanyahu’s side — he needs this as his victory photos,” Baskin told CNN .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has faced criticism from all sides over the way the war in Gaza is unfolding. Domestically, he faces a huge uprising over his inability to bring back the 101 hostages still held in Gaza. Internationally, it is under pressure due to the rising Palestinian death toll and the horrific humanitarian situation in the Strip.

“They have no idea that (by releasing the video) they are cementing Sinwar’s legacy in Palestine and the Arab world as a new kind of Saladin, a hero, a fighter to the end,” he said, referring to the famous 12th-century Muslim warrior who defeated a much larger Crusader army and conquered Jerusalem.

Hamas quickly seized on the narrative and declared Sinwar a martyr who fought and died for the cause, but even Palestinians who have opposed Sinwar and Hamas in the past said the photos and video show defiance and bravery.

“I think (the Israelis) were looking for an image of victory, but Sinwar gave them a different image. He was not hiding in a tunnel, as Netanyahu claimed; he was not hiding behind Palestinian civilians, using them as human shields, as Israeli propaganda used to say. He was not hiding behind Israeli prisoners or captives, as they also claimed; he was fighting,” Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian politician and chairman of the Palestinian National Initiative, told CNN.

“And this image will make him look like a hero to the majority of Palestinians, Arabs and people who are against the Israeli occupation and the oppression that Palestinians suffer,” he added.

The video also raises questions about how Sinwar was killed. The IDF, Israel’s security services and its Shin Bet intelligence agency had been searching for Sinwar for more than a year, receiving help from the CIA. However, in the end, it was only by pure chance that a group of soldiers found Sinwar and killed him.

At first, they didn’t even know who the person they had killed was — the video shows Sinwar wearing a face covering and military clothing. Only a day later, when Israeli soldiers returned to the scene to examine the scene, did they realize it was Sinwar.

“The truth is in the eyes of the beholder”

Gil Siegal, a legal scholar and head of the Center for Medical Law, Bioethics and Health Policy at Ono Academic College in Israel, said the fact that the video was used by both Israel and Hamas to support their goals is not a surprise.

“The truth is in the eyes of the beholder. Objectively, the image shows a person covered in dust, clearly injured, trying to throw an object at a drone. This is the fact, the objective fact,” he stated.

“Now, let’s interpret this fact. Some will say, ‘oh, you see, this person is fighting until his last breath.’ Others will say, ‘see, this is the Stone Age fighting the age of startups and technology.’ And still others will say, ‘See, even at the last moment, this person remains violent and determined to cause harm,’ and so on.”

Siegal mentioned that there were likely several reasons for the IDF to release the materials publicly, including the desire to show that Sinwar was, in fact, dead.

“It’s proof. For example, people said that (Hamas military chief) Mohammed Deif is still alive. There were days of refutation following the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah,” he added.

To counter Sinwar’s image as a courageous martyr, the IDF released several videos and photos of him hiding in the Gaza tunnels with his family, accompanied by allegations about his comfortable life and prioritization of himself over his people. The IDF said the images were captured by a Hamas security camera on October 6 and 10 last year and obtained by the IDF recently.

Avichay Adraee, IDF Arab spokesman, said huge amounts of money, food and water were found in Sinwar’s hideouts. “He was hiding with his family in a luxurious tunnel while the children of Gaza were exposed due to his crimes and brutality,” Adraee stated on X.

Posting a photo of Sinwar’s wife carrying a bag, Adraee suggested the accessory was a luxury item costing tens of thousands of dollars. “While the people of Gaza do not have enough money for a tent or basic needs, we see many examples of Yahya Sinwar and his wife’s special love for money,” he said.

Shira Efron, senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, said the release of photos and videos of the tunnels was likely an attempt at “course correction on Israel’s part.”

Israel’s narrative had long been that Sinwar let the people of Gaza suffer while he sheltered underground, surrounding himself with the hostages taken from Israel as a form of insurance, she said.

“And then suddenly what you see is this guy who not only isn’t in the tunnel and doesn’t have hostages, but he’s fighting heroically like the last soldier, right, wearing armor, he looks thinner and even with his arm hanging, he lost an arm and is still fighting. This was not Israel’s intention,” she said, adding that the videos subsequently posted by the IDF are an attempt to reinforce its preferred narrative.

It is a known fact, backed by Western intelligence agencies, that Hamas has built a vast network of underground tunnels in Gaza, using them to store weapons, move undetected and shelter.

The IDF has repeatedly said it believes Sinwar was moving through the tunnel network accompanied by hostages and said his DNA was found in a tunnel near where the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas in August were found.

Hamas has already issued a statement refuting the Israeli version of events, accusing the IDF of “blatant lies” and “a failed theatrical performance” in its depiction of the final year of Sinwar’s life.

The group said Sinwar was killed while “engaged on the battlefield” after having spent the last year “moving around various combat fronts in the Gaza Strip,” adding that “commander Sinwar and his brothers” humiliated the Israeli army.

But Siegal said there was probably another reason the IDF released the video showing Sinwar all alone at the end.

“Those who lead a revolution, those who lead a military campaign, are usually surrounded by the people who support them, people who live for them, people who will do everything in their power to help them. And guess what? This person who is supposedly fighting for the Palestinian people, the people left him alone. He was completely alone,” he said.

The report was contributed by CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim, Abeer Salman and Dana Karni.

This content originally appeared on Martyr or Coward? Israel and Hamas present conflicting narratives about Sinwar’s death on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil