Hamas chooses Yahya Sinwar as new leader following Haniyeh killing

Hamas on Tuesday announced that it had chosen Yahya Sinwar, who heads the movement inside the Gaza Strip, as the new leader of the group’s political bureau, following the killing of Ismail Haniyeh last month in Tehran.

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said that Sinwar was unanimously chosen as the new leader, reflecting the movement’s understanding of the current needs of the group. He added that Sinwar was always involved in the negotiations for a ceasefire with Israel.

“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the selection of Commander Yahya Sinwar as the head of the political bureau of the movement, succeeding the martyr Commander Ismail Haniyeh, may Allah have mercy on him,” Hamas said in a brief statement.

Sinwar, who was close to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and was known for founding the internal security bodies of Hamas, was previously sentenced by Israel to four life terms in the late 1980s.

Sinwar served 23 years for leading the group’s first internal security apparatus, Majd, which targeted and killed Palestinians it suspected of collaborating with Israel.

In 2011, he was freed along with 1,047 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian fighters in a cross-boundary raid in 2006.

Sinwar, a former commander of Hamas’s military wing, returned to his position as a prominent leader in Hamas and was elected as head of Hamas’s political office in Gaza in 2017, replacing Haniyeh who was serving in that position at the time.

In 2021, he was reelected to another four-year term as Hamas’s chief in Gaza.

The decision comes after Haniyeh was killed in Tehran on 31 July. Haniyeh had travelled to Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Masoud Pezeshkian, the new Iranian president, and was staying at a residence for war veterans where he was reportedly struck by a “projectile”.

Other Hamas leaders seen as potential replacements for Haniyeh were Khaled Meshaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Mohammed Deif, and Marwan Issa.

Unlike Haniyeh, who spent the duration of the Israeli war on Gaza outside of the besieged enclave, Sinwar has been inside Gaza where he has been a continuous target of Israel’s military.

US officials who previously spoke with MEE said the US was expanding its search efforts for Sinwar across the region, after believing the 61-year-old was hiding in tunnels deep below Gaza.

In April, a Hamas official reportedly said that Sinwar had visited combat zones in Gaza above ground and was not always staying in tunnels. Middle East Eye could not independently verify this report.

An Israeli officer told Middle East Eye in May that Sinwar had become Israel’s number one target, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had abandoned efforts to rescue the Israeli hostages in Gaza and instead made pursuing Sinwar its main priority.

“Netanyahu’s operations in Gaza are fundamentally aimed at … hunting down Yahya Sinwar,” said the officer in Gaza, adding that the war had become “personal” for the Israeli leader.