Former interrogator on Yahia Sinwar: What he is and what he is not

Micha Kobi tells i24 TV about his impressions of Sinwar from the interrogation he conducted in 1989.

Brief interview with Micha Kobi, former Head of the Interrogation Department of the Shin Bet, who interrogated Yahya Sinwar in 1989. This interview was conducted in November 2023. I bring this now because the idea of a ceasefire in which Sinwar agrees to leave Gaza seems to still be on the table.

At the time of his arrest and interrogation, Sinwar was advisor to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin (founded in 1987) and in charge of the Hamas unit executing Gazans suspected of collaboration with Israel. In the previous two years, Sinwar had had 12 suspected collaborators put to death. Kobi says that Sinwar’s description of his last execution was traumatizing for him, an experienced interrogator (a sanitized version at 1:22-2:00 in the video below).

Kobi shares his impressions of Sinwar in the rest of the interview. Below the video, I listed the points for those who prefer to read than to watch.

• Born in Khan Yunis, Sinwar began praying in Ahmad Yassin’s mosque in Gaza City as a young boy. He grew close to Yassin. He was motivated to follow the Hamas Charter whose first goal was destroying the Jewish state and after that all the infidels.

• Sinwar is very religious. In his heart, he has a deep hatred of Jews. He knows the Quran by heart. He believes everything is from Allah. He always talks with his friends about following the Charter.

• He is charismatic and very smart. Kobi does not think he is psychopathic.

• He was very powerful, even then, among those who accept the Charter.

In response to the question of whether or not he will agree to leave Gaza in a deal to stop the war, Kobi says that he doubts he would. “He won’t leave Gaza until he will be dead.”

Kobi suggests that Sinwar is sure that Israel is going to fight to the end and is sure he will be killed. From Kobi’s assessment of his character, he believes that Sinwar will fight until he is killed and will not agree to go anywhere else.

In December 2023, Kobi told Haaretz that Sinwar had said during his interrogation that one day he would be in power and Kobi would be the one being interrogated.

Remember, the interrogation was in 1989 and Sinwar remained in Israeli prison until released in the Shalit Deal in 2011. In 2017, he became head of Hamas in Gaza and after Ismail Haniye’s assassination in July this year, he became head of the entire body of Hamas.

(Micha Kobi is not to be confused with Dr. Kobi Michael, formerly of the Palestinian Desk at Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs.)

---

Israel is not supported on the Substack payment platform; therefore, I set up a way to make one-time donations or ongoing subscriptions in your own currency using Paypal (Buy me a Coffee, below) or the Ko-fi payment platform here. Israelis can send me a private message for another option.

Articles will always be free for all subscribers but a paid subscription or donation is a way to help me sustain myself while doing all the work involved in putting these articles together and would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you to all those who have supported my work by subscribing and/or by donating coffees.