Dr. Yuval Bitton, the Israeli dentist who helped save Yahya Sinwar’s life while the Hamas leader was in prison two decades ago, was preparing to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot when he began to hear reports that Mr. Sinwar had been killed.
Dr. Bitton said he was surprised to hear the news about Mr. Sinwar, who had evaded Israeli forces despite being the subject of an intense Israeli manhunt, but the situation quickly came into focus.
After a former colleague shared a photograph that later circulated online and that appeared to show the body of a man with facial features strongly resembling Mr. Sinwar, Dr. Bitton said he realized that it was the man he had spent years talking to, treating and analyzing.
“I spent so many years looking at his face that I didn’t need any form of identification,” he said. “I immediately recognized him.”
Since the two got to know each other in an Israeli prison in the early 2000s, their lives have been closely intertwined. Now that the Hamas leader is dead, Dr. Bitton expressed hope that a more peaceful future would descend on the Middle East — and that he would finally lose the moniker of the Israeli who saved Mr. Sinwar.
In 2004, Dr. Bitton, then a young prison dentist, came across a befuddled Mr. Sinwar in the infirmary. After a short exchange, Dr. Bitton realized that Mr. Sinwar’s life was at risk and that he needed to be taken to a hospital immediately.
At the hospital, surgeons removed an aggressive brain tumor, and Mr. Sinwar thanked Dr. Bitton for saving his life.
The two developed a unique relationship of sorts. As a dentist and later as a senior intelligence officer for the Israeli prison service, Dr. Bitton spent hours talking to Mr. Sinwar, up until the moment that Mr. Sinwar boarded a bus back to Gaza during a prisoner exchange in 2011.
“The conversations with Sinwar were not personal or emotional,” Dr. Bitton said. “They were only about Hamas.”
But the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, which prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza, did affect him personally: Dr. Bitton’s nephew Tamir Adar was taken hostage during the assault, he said. The Israeli government later told the family that intelligence suggested that Mr. Adar was injured in the attacks and had apparently died not long after being taken to Gaza.
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The house of Tamir Adar, Dr. Bitton’s nephew, in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Israel.Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Dr. Bitton did not take joy in the Hamas leader’s death. “In the Torah there’s a proverb, ‘Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls,’” he said.
But he did express optimism that the killing of Mr. Sinwar would help precipitate a deal to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza and end the war there. “This is what is known as a game changer,” he said.
Dr. Bitton also said he hoped that Mr. Sinwar’s death would end a chapter in his own life. “I’m asked every day if I have regrets,” Dr. Bitton said, referring to his role in saving Mr. Sinwar’s life. “I couldn’t have acted any differently,” he added.
“Now, I think that both the public and the media will no longer have this association that he’s alive because of me,” Dr. Bitton said. “That’s it. He’s no longer alive.”
Dr. Bitton said he was surprised to hear the news about Mr. Sinwar, who had evaded Israeli forces despite being the subject of an intense Israeli manhunt, but the situation quickly came into focus.
After a former colleague shared a photograph that later circulated online and that appeared to show the body of a man with facial features strongly resembling Mr. Sinwar, Dr. Bitton said he realized that it was the man he had spent years talking to, treating and analyzing.
“I spent so many years looking at his face that I didn’t need any form of identification,” he said. “I immediately recognized him.”
Since the two got to know each other in an Israeli prison in the early 2000s, their lives have been closely intertwined. Now that the Hamas leader is dead, Dr. Bitton expressed hope that a more peaceful future would descend on the Middle East — and that he would finally lose the moniker of the Israeli who saved Mr. Sinwar.
In 2004, Dr. Bitton, then a young prison dentist, came across a befuddled Mr. Sinwar in the infirmary. After a short exchange, Dr. Bitton realized that Mr. Sinwar’s life was at risk and that he needed to be taken to a hospital immediately.
At the hospital, surgeons removed an aggressive brain tumor, and Mr. Sinwar thanked Dr. Bitton for saving his life.
The two developed a unique relationship of sorts. As a dentist and later as a senior intelligence officer for the Israeli prison service, Dr. Bitton spent hours talking to Mr. Sinwar, up until the moment that Mr. Sinwar boarded a bus back to Gaza during a prisoner exchange in 2011.
“The conversations with Sinwar were not personal or emotional,” Dr. Bitton said. “They were only about Hamas.”
But the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, which prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza, did affect him personally: Dr. Bitton’s nephew Tamir Adar was taken hostage during the assault, he said. The Israeli government later told the family that intelligence suggested that Mr. Adar was injured in the attacks and had apparently died not long after being taken to Gaza.
Image
The house of Tamir Adar, Dr. Bitton’s nephew, in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Israel.Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Dr. Bitton did not take joy in the Hamas leader’s death. “In the Torah there’s a proverb, ‘Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls,’” he said.
But he did express optimism that the killing of Mr. Sinwar would help precipitate a deal to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza and end the war there. “This is what is known as a game changer,” he said.
Dr. Bitton also said he hoped that Mr. Sinwar’s death would end a chapter in his own life. “I’m asked every day if I have regrets,” Dr. Bitton said, referring to his role in saving Mr. Sinwar’s life. “I couldn’t have acted any differently,” he added.
“Now, I think that both the public and the media will no longer have this association that he’s alive because of me,” Dr. Bitton said. “That’s it. He’s no longer alive.”
