Tale of Palestine in Yahya Sinwar’s Novel (Part II)

TEHRAN -- Sinwar probably started writing fiction to document his experience, especially given the absence of Palestinian political literature or books representing the Palestinian perspective in the various Israeli prisons where he was incarcerated for 22 years.

Born in 1962 in Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp, Sinwar spent his life immersed in political activism and resistance. He joined Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, from its inception in 1987 and eventually took responsibility for Majd, an organization tasked with tracking and eliminating collaborators with Israel. Little is known about his political activities before joining Hamas, aside from his intense involvement as a student activist at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Arabic. Between his student activism and the founding of Majd, which became the nucleus of Hamas’ security apparatus, there is a gap in the record of his life, covering the events that prepared him to assume this critical role in the movement.
Israeli forces arrested Sinwar in 1989, when he was 27, and sentenced him to four life terms for killing four Palestinians accused of collaboration. He was 49 when he was released in a prisonr exchange deal for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier Hamas captured in an operation led by Sinwar’s brother Mohamed in 2006.
Sinwar began a new chapter in prison, learning Hebrew well enough to translate books into Arabic, despite the long periods of solitary confinement he endured. He then decided to embark on a new challenge: writing his first novel, which he completed after 15 years in prison. With the help of dozens of fellow prisoners who operated like an ant colony, as described in the foreword to his novel, Sinwar successfully smuggled it out of the prison in sections, evading the watchful eyes of the prison wardens.
This accomplishment demonstrated that even the severe security measures and brutality within the prisons could not prevent Palestinian prisoners from finding ways to communicate their messages. It also underscores Sinwar’s central role and influence, both within the Palestinian prisoner community and Hamas, long before he would become a household name in Gaza and the West Bank. The novel was followed by his second book, “Glory,” which explores the operations of Israel’s General Security Service, the Shin Bet, and the assassinations carried out against resistance leaders. “Glory” was published in 2010.
He was released from prison in 2011, to an entirely different Gaza from the one that existed before his incarceration. Hamas now ruled the enclave, leading Israel to impose a tight siege as collective punishment. Sinwar assumed significant roles within the movement before he was elected head of Hamas’ Gaza branch in 2017, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of the movement in Gaza who moved to Doha, Qatar.
“The Thorn and the Carnation” follows a Palestinian family living in Gaza’s al-Shati refugee camp after being displaced from their village in 1948. Narrated by Ahmed, the youngest grandson, the novel chronicles the family’s struggles — shaped by the disappearance of their father and uncle — the harsh conditions of the refugee camp, and political events spanning 37 years. The eldest son joins the Fatah movement, while his younger brothers align with the Islamic resistance and the intifada. The novel intertwines personal and historical events, documenting key milestones of Palestinian history from 1967 to the early years of the Second Intifada.
Although it was completed more than two decades ago, Sinwar’s detailed narrative of the life he lived in the strip offers compelling insight into the current conflict in Gaza. The parallels demonstrate that Israel’s ongoing war is merely a violent reiteration of the same mechanisms and policies of occupation that have persisted since the time depicted in the novel. These policies — forced mass displacement, land grabs, massacres and mass arrests — continue to shape Palestinian actions, as they have since 1948.
The difference this time lies in the magnitude of the Palestinian operation on Oct. 7, for which Sinwar, more than anyone else, has been seen as responsible. When he wrote his novel, Hamas lacked the weapons, experience and influence it now wields within the Gaza Strip and across the occupied Palestinian territories. The novel covers a period of political and intellectual transformation occurring in response to changing developments on the ground, and highlights the cumulative interactions across Palestinian generations.
Yet it is also deeply connected to the present. If the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation signals a shift in the Palestinian resistance movement, “The Thorn and the Carnation” reflects the continuity of a broader strategy within Gaza’s resistance. The work ultimately emphasizes that escalation is necessary when other methods have been exhausted, to force a decisive confrontation with the Israeli occupation. This approach is aimed at “changing the equation,” as Sinwar states in the novel.