The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday night published a letter written by Ibrahim Sinwar, the son of former Hamas terrorist chief Yahya Sinwar, at the start of the war, when he was 10 years old, in which he expressed a desire “to hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews.”
The letter was recovered by IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip in 2024.
Yahya Sinwar masterminded the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in southern Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, wounded thousands and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage to Gaza. He was killed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Oct. 16, 2024.
In the letter addressed to his father, Ibrahim expresses how much he misses him, writing that in his spare time he “makes pistols, tanks and Kalashnikovs out of paper and cardboard” and declaring his desire “to hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews.”
"I, Ibrahim, In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Beloved father, I miss you very much! I want to hug you and see you victorious, and I want to proclaim 'Allah is the greatest,' hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews," reads the letter, according to a translation provided by the IDF.
"When will you come back and sleep with your arms around me? I am constantly making pistols, tanks and Kalashnikovs out of paper and cardboard. My Lord, I wish the war would end and that I see you well. May Allah protect you, father. I want you to pray for me. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings," it adds.
The letter includes drawings by Ibrahim depicting weapons and tanks near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and missiles being fired at the Jewish state.
"The letter and drawings illustrate how Sinwar's murderous ideology is reflected in the upbringing of his children, revealing the impact of Hamas's values of hatred and violence on the younger generation in the Gaza Strip," the IDF said.
Sinwar was convicted in 1989 by an Israeli court for six murders and sentenced to five life sentences, which he was supposed to serve until his death. However, in October 2011, he was released from jail—having served 22 years—as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.
Following his release, Sinwar gained power and popularity within Hamas, becoming its Gaza leader in 2017 by defeating incumbent Ismail Haniyeh in a secret internal election among the group’s members in Gaza and Israeli prisons.
In August 2024, Sinwar was chosen to head Hamas’s so-called political bureau, replacing Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31 that year.
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces continue to work to degrade Hamas’s military and financing capabilities and to prevent the terrorist group from rebuilding its infrastructure.
On Wednesday, the IDF killed two terrorists involved in smuggling weapons into the Strip in the Khan Yunis area, the military said on Thursday.
The operation, conducted in conjunction with the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), targeted Basel Nabil Abd al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja al-Shaer, according to the IDF.
The two men were reportedly responsible for procuring and trading arms and facilitating their smuggling into the Palestinian enclave, and were killed to remove an immediate threat to Israeli civilians and troops operating in the Yellow Line ceasefire area.
Measures were taken to minimize harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
In parallel, Israeli soldiers dismantled a 1.5-kilometer (0.9-mile) underground tunnel that crossed the Yellow Line in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF said on Thursday.
The tunnel contained rooms intended for Hamas terrorists, according to the military.
Engineering troops from the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, working with the Yahalom elite combat engineering unit, sealed and dismantled the tunnel as part of ongoing operations to remove terrorist infrastructure near the Yellow Line, which marks IDF military deployment positions under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.