Hamas has appointed Yahya Sinwar as its new overall leader after two days of intense negotiations in Doha. Sinwar succeeds Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week. Since 2017, Sinwar has been the leader of Hamas within the Gaza Strip and will now head its political wing. The unanimous decision by Hamas leadership to choose Sinwar was confirmed by a senior Hamas official to the BBC.
This shift in leadership takes place in the midst of rising tensions in the Middle East as Iran and its supporters vow to exact revenge for the killing of Haniyeh, which they claim was carried out by Israel. Israel has said nothing about the issue.
The choice was made following lengthy discussions on the future leadership of Hamas in Doha among the organization’s leading figures. After a number of scenarios were considered, the choice ultimately came down to Mohammed Hassan Darwish, the leader of the General Shura Council, who is in charge of choosing the Politburo for Hamas, and Yahya Sinwar. In the end, the council unanimously decided in favor of Sinwar, sending a clear message of disobedience to Israel.
“They assassinated Haniyeh, the adaptable individual who welcomed ideas. A Hamas spokesman told the BBC that they now had to deal with Sinwar and the military leadership. Diplomats in the area saw Haniyeh as a practical leader who was instrumental in Hamas’s political outreach. Sinwar, on the other hand, is thought to be among the most radical members of the gang.
Sinwar is currently at the top of Israel’s most-wanted list. Israeli security agencies believe he was the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attacks that resulted in over 1,200 deaths and the abduction of 251 individuals who were taken into Gaza as hostages. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz issued a statement on X, calling Sinwar’s appointment “a compelling reason to swiftly eliminate him and wipe this vile organization off the face of the Earth.” Similarly, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari described Sinwar to Al-Arabiya as “a terrorist responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history.”
Since the October attacks, Sinwar has not been seen in public. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in June that Sinwar is believed to be hidden “ten storeys underground” in Gaza. According to Javed Ali, a former staff member of the US National Security Council, Sinwar’s leadership style is likely to make negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release more difficult due to his inflexible and difficult to deal with attitude.
Sinwar, who was born in the Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis in 1962, established Majd, the Hamas security service, in the late 1980s. This service was directed against accused Israeli collaborators among the Palestinians. He has spent a considerable amount of time in Israeli prisons throughout the years. In 1988, after his third arrest, he received four life sentences. However, he was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held captive by Hamas for over five years.
Before being recently promoted to overall leader, the 61-year-old Sinwar served as the head of Hamas’s political bureau in the Gaza Strip. He was appointed to this position in 2017. Sinwar is on the US government’s “international terrorists” blacklist.
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