Rape, sexual abuse, and pedophilia: How Hamas leader Sinwar ruled the yard

Baruch Yedid, head of the Arab affairs desk for Channel 14, on Wednesday revealed more details on 103FM in the Erel Segal program about the news about sexual scandals attributed to the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, among other things when he was in Israeli prison.

According to Yedid, "Since 2005, Muhammad Sinwar has been the Khan Yunis Brigade Commander and a member of the military leadership. He is also the one who, according to documents from the IDF spokesperson, dug the giant tunnel that was recently discovered, and keeps several skeletons in his closet."

"He was released from the PA prison in 2000," continued Yedid "There are questions about how he got out of there."

"Yahya was released in 2011 in the Shalit deal. When Yahya was still in prison, the heads of the military and the leadership of the prisoners turned to him and told him that his younger brother was involved in a series of acts of pedophilia and sexual harassment of boys, including Hamas operatives."

"Some of the incidents, according to them, happened when Muhammad was in a Palestinian prison, and some when he was already a senior member of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The response they get from Yahya, and this is confirmed by both Israeli and Palestinian officials, is that he throws them out, and forbids them to investigate anything outside of what he authorized them to investigate."

"Then he says 'Families of people I destroyed are behind the rumors.'"

Yedid continued, saying, "In the Ofer prison in the early 2000s, two Hamas men raped a boy, also a Palestinian prisoner, Yahya again forbade investigating the issue, preferring that a comprehensive investigation not be opened because his brother was still at large and Sinwar feared that this would lead to an investigation that would reveal his brother as well."

"How did this become known, among other things, to the Israeli intelligence organizations?"

The source of the rumors

Samir Kuntar, the same one who murdered the Haran family in 1979, who was released in 2008 and was eventually killed in Syria in 2015, was the source of the information.

Kuntar told Israeli officials on several occasions that Sinwar forbids investigating these matters, and expressed concern that these acts are increasing in prison, according to Yedid.

"Because Sinwar is one of the prisoners' leaders, he forbids them to interrogate his brother and tells the Israeli authorities about the pedophilia and rape committed by his brother Muhammad.

Yedid added, "When Yahya was still in prison, the members of the military branch once again informed him that his brother Mohammed was a collaborator for the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency)."

"This was already known to the Shin Bet, it forbade investigating because he says that if a background investigation is opened on the brother, this would also be revealed. So far this is only from Israeli sources."

"There is also information coming from Palestinian sources, there are quite a few in Ramallah who follow Hamas in Gaza. There are two intelligence files in Ramallah, one talks about sexual abuse done by the older brother Yahya, among other things from prisoners who were released and gave evidence to the Palestinian authorities."

"One of them says that in 1997 or 1998, when Sinwar was detained in Ashkelon prison, he kept silicon accessories and toys in his cell, with which he also sexually harassed. Ashkelon prison in those times only had male prisoners."

"When he was released in October 2011, within a month he married Samar, then 31 years old from a religious family. He said in an interview that his sisters brought him Samar, and around the marriage ceremony there were several testimonies about the marriage."

In conclusion, the journalist emphasized, "There are claims by Hamas members that their names were not included in the list of those released by Shalit, only because Muhammad Sinwar did not want them to be outside because of sexual scandals."