The selection of Sinwar follows the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh and signals centrality of Gaza within the group.
Hamas says it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza, as the new leader of its political bureau.
The selection of Sinwar, seen by Israel as the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks, follows Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran on July 31, the group said on Tuesday.
“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,” the movement said in a brief statement.
Haniyeh’s assassination, almost certainly carried out by Israel, sent shockwaves through the region and was seen by many as an effort by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scuttle efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, in which Haniyeh was a key figure.
Analysts say his replacement by Sinwar, who has gone largely unseen since the October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took about 250 captive in southern Israel, is an indicator of the central place that Gaza occupies in the group’s political vision.
“He [Sinwar] has skyrocketed to an influential position in Hamas, leading it in Gaza. The choice of Hamas to name him leader of the movement now puts Gaza front and centre of, not just the events on the ground, but certainly of the dynamics in the Hamas movement,” Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst based in Ramallah, told Al Jazeera.
“And it really sends a signal, as far as negotiations of a ceasefire is concerned, that Gaza calls the shots.”
The 61-year-old Sinwar was born in a Gaza refugee camp south of Khan Younis and was the former head of the Al-Majd security apparatus, tasked with eliminating Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. He became the leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2017.
Sinwar is one of several Hamas leaders for whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) sought an arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes committed on October 7.
Warrants were also sought for several Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and Israeli defence chief Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Israel’s assault on the strip has displaced more than 90 percent of the population, killed more than 39,000 people, and sparked reports of systematic rights abuses such as torture.
But despite Israel’s promise to wipe out Hamas, and a military campaign that ranks among the most destructive in modern history, the Palestinian armed group has continued to hold out against Israeli forces in Gaza. Sinwar has likewise managed to evade capture by Israel, despite a proclamation by Gallant that Sinwar was living “on borrowed time” after October 7.
“I think the focus on Gaza, and the focus on Sinwar, is a major signal of defiance,” Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said. “And of the fact that Hamas is not about to lose Gaza, that Hamas is going to remain a power within Gaza, and hence its leader is there.”
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