When he first met Hamas chief and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar in 1988, Israel’s top interrogator knew he was staring into the eyes of a radicalized madman hellbent on eradicating Israel.
“I saw a man with murderous eyes, filled with nothing but hate,” former Shin Bet agent Michael Koubi, 79, told The Post.
After spending 180 hours with Sinwar following his arrest and imprisonment by Israel’s intelligence angry, Koubi said he came to know the terrorist’s one, true goal: to kill all Jews.
As Israel marks one year since the horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attack that was orchestrated by Sinwar, Koubi said the Hamas leader would never agree to a ceasefire, and that peace cannot be restored to the region so long as the Hamas chief still lives.
“Sinwar will never, never, never accept peace,” Koubi said. “As long as he is alive, he will carry out another massacre. He must be killed.”
Israel said last month that the whereabouts of the Oct. 7 mastermind are unknown and that he hasn’t been heard from in weeks.
It remains unclear where Sinwar is hiding in the Gaza Strip since he disappeared in Hamas’ tunnel system with his family on Oct. 10, 2023 — with reports emerging that he might be dead. US and Israeli intelligence has found no evidence that he was killed.
Before he became the leader of Hamas in August, Sinwar grew up in a Khan Younis refugee camp, where he quickly became radicalized by the adults around him.
By the age of 13, Sinwar told Koubi that he would attend public sermons led by Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a disabled man infamous for his ability to manipulate the Quran to justify violent jihadism.
Yassin was the first Hamas member Koubi interrogated when Israeli agents arrested hundreds of members of the fledgling group over the murder of two IDF soldiers.
When it came time to speak with Sinwar, Koubi was horrified to learn of the brutal atrocities the Hamas agent committed against his own people, including the four Palestinians who were found with the Israeli troops.
“He talked about beheading one suspect,” Koubi recalled. “He talked about another victim who he took, had them dig a grave, and then buried him alive .”
“Even after all I’ve heard in my career, I was shocked at what he was telling me,” he added.
“How can someone be so gruesome? How can a man be this cruel?”
Sinwar’s ruthless tactics in hunting down suspected Palestinian spies earned him the nickname, “The Butcher of Khan Younis,” which garnered him respect and adoration from other Hamas operatives.
As he boasted about the 12 people he allegedly killed for Hamas, Sinwar also bragged about how much he loved radicalizing young Palestinians and teaching them violence and antisemitism.
Sinwar recounted how he visited one of Gaza’s kindergartens and separated the toddlers into two groups, Palestinians and Israelis.
“He spoke one time about giving rubber knives to the kids and made a game of who could kill the most Jews,” the former Israeli agent said.
Following their months together during Sinwar’s interrogations, Koubi took comfort knowing that Sinwar would stay behind bars for the rest of his life.
But, in 2011 Israel agreed to release him and more than 1,000 other prisoners in exchange for the freedom of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
When Koubi learned that Sinwar was one of the bargaining chips, the retired agent reached out to his former superiors to warn them on what would happen if The Butcher of Khan Younis was set free.
“I warned them that if he were ever released, Gaza would become a state of terror,” Koubi recalled.
After being released from prison, Sinwar returned to the Gaza Strip as a hero whose reputation propelled him to the top of Hamas’ Gaza branch, where he organized the brutal Oct. 7 massacre in which terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.
Sinwar was picked to lead the terrorist group following former chief Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in July, with the Gaza chief appointed the new head over others who were thought to be favored for the position.
While Israel has vowed to kill him for plotting the Oct. 7 attack that kicked off the war in Gaza, Israeli officials have repeatedly offered Sinwar exile and safety in exchange for the return of the hostages.
Koubi, however, fears that letting Sinwar go yet again will only lead to another terrorist attack on the Jewish state.
“I know him better than anyone, and he is a danger to the world,” he said. “The only solution is to kill him.”
