After two days of intensive negotiations in Doha, Hamas has appointed Yahya Sinwar as its new overall chief, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week. Sinwar, who has led the group’s operations inside the Gaza Strip since 2017, will now head its political wing.
A senior Hamas official confirmed that Sinwar was unanimously chosen by the Hamas leadership. “The council voted unanimously to choose Sinwar, in what one Hamas official described to the BBC as ‘a message of defiance to Israel’.”
“They killed Haniyeh, the flexible person who was open to solutions. Now they have to deal with Sinwar and the military leadership,” the official added.
This leadership change occurs amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, as Iran and its allies threaten retaliation for Haniyeh’s killing, which they attribute to Israel. Israel has not commented on the accusation.
The appointment of Sinwar, considered one of Hamas’s most extreme figures, signals a shift in the group’s stance. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz stated, “The appointment of arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar as the new leader of Hamas, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, is yet another compelling reason to swiftly eliminate him and wipe this vile organisation off the face of the Earth.”
Sinwar is currently at the top of Israel’s most-wanted list for his alleged role in orchestrating the October 7, 2023, attacks, which resulted in over 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages taken into Gaza. He has not been seen in public since these attacks and is believed to be hiding in Gaza.
Born in 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp, Sinwar founded the Hamas security service, Majd, in the late 1980s. He has spent significant time in Israeli prisons, receiving four life sentences in 1988. However, he was released in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Sinwar, who has been on the US blacklist of “international terrorists,” has now been tasked with leading Hamas during a volatile period.
