Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as its new leader in Gaza following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31.
“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,” stated the movement, according to Reuters. Sinwar, who has been in hiding in Gaza since the onset of the current conflict with Israel, has spent half of his adult life in Israeli prisons and emerged as the most influential Hamas leader after Haniyeh’s death.
Born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis, Gaza, Sinwar, 61, was elected as the leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2017. He is known for his reputation as a ruthless enforcer and an implacable foe of Israel. Before his imprisonment, Sinwar led the Al-Majd security apparatus, which punished and executed Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel’s secret service.
Haniyeh’s assassination occurred in Tehran, where he was attending the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. According to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Haniyeh was killed in a “treacherous Zionist raid” involving a short-range projectile with a 7 kg warhead fired from outside his residence. The IRGC alleged that Israel carried out the attack with support from the United States, a claim the U.S. government has denied, asserting it had no advance knowledge of the assassination plot.
Haniyeh’s death followed an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed Fuad Shukr, a military commander of Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
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