Hamas named on Tuesday its leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, as the successor to former political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week.
Sinwar had led the group in the Gaza Strip since 2017. He will now become the leader of the political wing. The Hamas leadership unanimously chose Sinwar to head the movement, the BBC reported.
Hamas’ representative in Iran, Khaled Qaddoumi, called Sinwar a “consensus choice,” popular among all factions and involved in decision-making within the group, including negotiations, Fox News reported. In a voice message to the Associated Press, he said Sinwar knows the Palestinians’ political aspirations for statehood and refugee return, but is a “fierce fighter on the battlefield.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sinwar “has been and remains a major deciding factor when it comes to a ceasefire agreement.”
He also said Sinwar must “decide whether to move forward with a ceasefire that will obviously help so many Palestinians who are desperate, women, children, men caught in the crossfire. …. It’s really up to him.”
Unlike Haniyeh, who lived for years in Qatar, Sinwar stayed in Gaza. A Hamas leader in the territory since 2017, he rarely appeared in public but maintained his grip on power with an iron grip. Close to Deif and the armed wing known as the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, he worked to build up the group’s military capabilities.
Sinwar currently tops Israel’s list of most wanted criminals.
