Hamas elevates Gaza leader who planned Oct. 7 attacks to top post
JERUSALEM — Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, to lead the militant group’s political wing, it announced Tuesday, consolidating his power over Hamas as it continues to fight Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, has long been considered an architect of Hamas’ military strategy there. Now, he will also replace Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s previous political leader and a key liaison in the indirect cease-fire talks with Israel. Haniyeh, who had been living in Qatar, was killed in an explosion in Iran last week that has been widely attributed to Israel.
Sinwar, 61, is a prime target for Israeli forces and is widely believed to be hiding out in tunnels underneath the enclave to avoid Israeli attack. Despite that, he is thought to have been dictating the group’s position in the cease-fire talks.
His selection to lead the group’s political office comes as the Middle East braces for Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, to strike Israel in response to the killings last week of Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander, Fouad Shukur.
Hamas and Iran have blamed Israel for planting the bomb that killed Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Israel has declined to comment on Haniyeh’s death, but U.S. officials have privately assessed that Israel was behind it.
The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has promised to respond with a “harsh punishment.” And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said his country will “exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from whatever quarter.”
Amid frenzied diplomatic efforts to prevent the violence from mushrooming, the United States has ordered additional combat aircraft and warships that can intercept missiles, rockets and drones to the Middle East.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesperson, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Sinwar had been chosen unanimously and that he was “accepted by everyone in the movement.” He said it was too early to discuss how his selection would affect the cease-fire talks but suggested that little would change.
Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, said in a statement that Sinwar’s appointment was “yet another compelling reason to swiftly eliminate him and wipe this vile organization off the face of the earth.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2024 The New York Times Company
