Hamas names Oct. 7 architect Yahya Sinwar new political leader. What does it mean for ceasefire talks?
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| Yahya Sinwar waving to a crowd during an event in Gaza City on April 14, 2023. |
Palestinian militant group Hamas announced Tuesday that it had named Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza Strip's most senior official and mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, as its new leader.
The selection of Sinwar, a shadowy Hamas hard-line leader and Iranian confidant, was a provocative move. Sinwar is at the top of Israel's hit list as the country seeks to crush Hamas and its leadership following October attacks by militants in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
Hamas said in a statement that Sinwar was named as the new head of its politburo, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an Israeli assassination attempt in Iran last week. Also last week, Israel confirmed the death of Hamas' military chief, Mohammed Deif, in a Gaza airstrike in July. Hamas has not confirmed his death. Unlike Haniyeh, who spent years in exile in Qatar, Sinwar has remained in Gaza. As Hamas' leader in the region since 2017, he has kept Hamas' rule in ironclad condition, though he rarely appears in public. Sinwar was close to Deif and the militant group, the so-called Qassam Brigades, and worked to build up the group's military capabilities.
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| Permanent Representative of Israel to the U.N. Gilad Erdan holds up a sign with the contact information of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during the U.N. General Assembly emergency special session on the Israel-Hamas war on December 12, 2023. |
Sinwar has been in deep hiding since the Oct. 7 attacks that saw Israel launch its operation in Gaza and a rising Palestinian death toll that is now approaching 40,000. In an interview with Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya TV channel, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari called Sinwar a "terrorist," adding, "There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and that is on Oct. 7, alongside Mohammed Deif and other terrorists in the IDF. This is the only place we are preparing for him, the only place we have prepared for him."
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