Anika Begay
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas has named its Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, as successor to former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week, the group said on Tuesday, in a move that reinforces the radical course it has taken since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Sinwar, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on Israel in decades, has been hiding in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since the war began.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the appointment of Commander Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement’s political bureau, replacing the martyred Commander Ismail Haniyeh, may Allah have mercy on him,” the movement said in a brief statement.
News of the appointment, which came as Israel prepares to respond to Haniyeh’s killing in the Iranian capital, was greeted with a salvo of rocket fire from Gaza by militant gangs still battling Israeli troops in the besieged enclave.
“The appointment means Israel will have to confront Sinwar for a solution to the Gaza war,” said a regional diplomat familiar with the Egyptian- and Qatar-brokered talks aimed at ending the fighting in Gaza and the return of the 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still held in the enclave.
“It’s a message of toughness and no compromise.”
Sinwar, who has spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons, was the most powerful Hamas leader alive after Haniyeh’s assassination, which left the region on the brink of a wider regional conflict after Iran promised harsh reprisals.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, but has said it has killed other high-ranking leaders, including Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed in Beirut, and Mohammed Deif, the movement’s military commander.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar, 61, was elected Hamas leader in Gaza in 2017 after earning a reputation among Palestinians as a ruthless executioner and an implacable enemy of Israel.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, blamed Sinwar for the October 7 attack and said Israel would continue to pursue him.
“There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and that is next to Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7 terrorists,” he told Al-Arabiya television, according to a statement released by the army. “That is the only place we are preparing and intending for him.”
UNIT
In a sign that the movement had united around Sinwar’s choice, senior movement sources said that Khaled Meshaal, a former leader who had been seen as a potential successor to Haniyeh, had supported Sinwar “out of loyalty to Gaza and its people, who are fighting the battle of the Al-Aqsa flood.”
For Israel, the appointment confirms Hamas as an enemy bent on its destruction and is likely to strengthen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel must pursue its campaign in Gaza to the full.
Ten months after thousands of Hamas-led fighters launched a surprise attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip in the early morning hours of October 7, the war has shaken the Middle East and threatens to escalate into a broader regional conflict.
Some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners have been killed and more than 250 have been taken hostage in Gaza. In response, Israel has launched a relentless campaign that has so far killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and left the densely populated enclave in ruins.
Attempts to reach a ceasefire that would have given the exhausted population a respite and allowed the remaining hostages to return home have failed amid mutual recriminations from Hamas and Israel.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that the movement remains committed to reaching an agreement and that the team that handled the negotiations under Haniyeh will continue under Sinwar, who he said is closely following the talks.
But Hani Al-Masri, a Ramallah-based political analyst, said Sinwar’s appointment as head of the movement as a whole represented a direct challenge to Israel and sent a message that Hamas was embracing its “extremist and resistant approach.”
“As Sinwar manages the negotiations, he will manage the movement,” he said.
