BEIRUT — Hamas on Tuesday named Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader in a dramatic sign of the power of the Palestinian militant group’s hardline wing after his predecessor was killed in a presumed Israeli strike in Iran.
The selection of Sinwar, a secretive figure close to Iran who worked for years to build up Hamas’ military strength, was a defiant signal that the group is prepared to keep fighting after 10 months of destruction from Israel’s campaign in Gaza and after the assassination of Sinwar’s predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh.
It is also likely to provoke Israel, which has put him at the top of its kill list after the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 as hostages.
The announcement comes at volatile moment. Fears are high of an escalation into a wider regional war, with Iran vowing revenge against Israel over Haniyeh’s killing and Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatening to retaliate over Israel’s killing of one of its top commanders in an airstrike in Beirut last week. American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to salvage negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza, shaken by Haniyeh’s killing.
Hamas said in a statement it named Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau to replace Haniyeh, who was killed in a blast that Iran and Hamas blamed on Israel. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility. Also last week, Israel said it had confirmed the death of the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in a July airstrike in Gaza. Hamas has not confirmed his death.
In reaction to the appointment, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya televsion, “There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him.”
Israel’s killings of multiple senior officials in Hamas over recent months left Sinwar as the most prominent figure in the group. His selection signals that the leadership on the ground in Gaza — particularly the armed wing known as the Qassam Brigades — has taken over from the leadership in exile, which has traditionally maintained the position of the overall leadership to navigate relations with foreign allies and diplomacy.
Haniyeh, who had lived in self-imposed exile in Qatar since 2019, had played a direct role in negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza through U.S., Qatari and Egyptian negotiators — though he and other Hamas officials always ran proposals and positions by Sinwar.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera television after the announcement, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said Sinwar would continue the cease-fire negotiations.
“The problem in negotiations is not the change in Hamas,” he said, blaming Israel and its ally the United States for the failure to seal a deal.
But he said said Sinwar’s selection was a sign the group’s will had not been broken. Hamas “remains steadfast in the battlefield and in politics,” he said. “The person leading today is the one who led the fighting for more than 305 days and is still steadfast in the field.”
