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Israel mulling burning Yahya Sinwar’s body rather than returning it to Hamas: Report

Tuesday, 21 October 2025 10:37 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 21 October 2025 10:37 AM ]

Martyred head of the political bureau of Hamas resistance movement, Yahya Sinwar

An Israeli minister has publicly stated she proposed burning the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar rather than returning it to the Gaza-based resistance group as part of any future exchange.

Israeli transportation minister Miri Regev revealed on Monday that she made the suggestion at a recent meeting of Israel’s so-called security cabinet, claiming that certain “symbols must not be returned.”

“I thought we should do exactly what the Americans did with [Osama] bin Laden,” Regev said, referring to the founder of al-Qaeda who was killed by US special forces in 2011 and buried at sea to prevent his gravesite from becoming a shrine.

Regev’s controversial proposal is reportedly under review by the regime’s so-called security officials, according to reports.

Israel had previously refused to release Sinwar’s body, which was transferred to a secret storage location.

On October 9, after US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his plan to end the war, leading to a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of most of the captives, an Israeli official told CNN that “the bodies of the Sinwar brothers will not be part of the current agreement.”

One year since Yahya Sinwar, Gaza's eternal symbol of resistance, fell in active combat

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader and architect of Op. Al-Aqsa Flood, was killed in active combat on this day last year in southern Gaza, defiant until his last breath and symbolizing Gaza’s enduring resistance.

On October 18, 2024, Hamas confirmed the assassination of its iconic leader Yahya Sinwar in southern Gaza’s Rafah city.

Adorned in combat dress and carrying an AK-47 rifle, Sinwar was found dead under the rubble of a building after engaging in a battle with Israeli forces on the frontline of the war.

Sinwar’s key role in the events following October 7, 2023, placed him on the Israeli regime’s “kill list” for an extended period, but he managed to evade several assassination attempts by the regime.

However, the final footage of his martyrdom, recorded by an Israeli drone, shattered the Israeli media’s narrative that he was hiding in Hamas’s underground tunnels.

His martyrdom was widely regarded as one of the most significant exposures of Israeli media propaganda.

Sinwar’s brother Mohammed, who assumed command of Hamas’s military wing following the Israeli assassination of Mohammed Deif, was also assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in May 2024.

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