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Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the deadly October 7 attack on Israel, to be its new political leader in a move that consolidates his grip over the Palestinian militant movement.
Sinwar, who is Israel’s most wanted man, succeeds Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Tehran last week in an attack that Hamas and Iran have blamed on Israel.
The choice of Sinwar, a ruthless figure who is Hamas’s leader in Gaza, is likely to be seen by Israel as a provocative move, and threatens to further complicate stalled US-led efforts to broker a deal to secure the release of hostages and end the war in the besieged strip.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas political official, said Sinwar was chosen “unanimously”, adding the militant’s group’s team involved in the negotiations under Haniyeh would continue “under the supervision of Sinwar”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Sinwar a “dead man walking” for his role orchestrating the October 7 attack that killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israel, and triggered the 10-month war that has killed nearly 40,000 people and wounded hundreds of thousands in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. About 250 people were also seized as hostages.
“Yahya Sinwar is a terrorist, who is responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history,” said Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Tuesday. “There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif [a Hamas leader Israel said it has killed] and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him.”
Diplomats in the region had expected Haniyeh to be replaced by another member of the political leadership in Qatar, where he had been living in exile. His killing was considered a setback for the diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, as he was the main interlocutor dealing with Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
Sinwar’s appointment as political leader could risk hardening both Netanyahu’s and Hamas’s stance in the negotiations.
A diplomat briefed on the talks said: “Ultimately you always had to convince Sinwar to buy into the deal. But you’ve lost a voice in Haniyeh, who could do that. Others can help but of course do not have the same weight as Haniyeh.”
The US and its allies view the talks as vital to ending the war and defusing soaring regional tensions.
Shortly before Hamas announced Sinwar would take over as political leader, US President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar as Washington continued to press for a hostage and ceasefire deal.
On separate calls with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar’s emir, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Biden addressed “their efforts to de-escalate regional tensions”, and the three leaders “agreed on the urgency of bringing the process to closure as soon as possible”, the White House said.
Born in a slum in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, Sinwar rose to prominence in the 1980s as an adviser to Hamas’s wheelchair-bound founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Sinwar helped build Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and was later tasked with leading its feared internal security apparatus, which hunted down suspected Palestinian collaborators, earning him the nickname “the butcher of Khan Younis”.
He spent more than 22 years in an Israeli prison for his role in eliminating collaborators, and was released as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange in which more than 1,000 Palestinians were released for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Hamas in Gaza.
Those who have spent time with Sinwar have described him as a charismatic man of few words, a quick temper and a commanding presence.
In the days following the October 7 attacks, he was seen in the tunnel network under Gaza, according to some of the freed hostages. Israeli intelligence believes Sinwar has avoided capture or assassination in south Gaza by remaining inside Hamas’s vast underground tunnel network.
Earlier this year, the Israeli military released a video it claimed was of Sinwar, accompanied by his family, moving through one such tunnel underneath Khan Younis.
His killing has been one of the key objectives of the Israeli campaign to “destroy” Hamas in Gaza.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv
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