GAZA STRIP: Hamas has named Gaza Strip chief Yahya Sinwar as its new political leader a week after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran which has sent regional tensions soaring, Reuters reports.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the selection of leader Yahya Sinwar as the head of the political bureau of the movement,” a statement from the group said.
News of the appointment was greeted with a salvo of rockets from Gaza by fighters still resisting Israeli troops in the besieged enclave.
Sinwar, who spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons, was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh last week. The murder has left the region on the brink of a wider regional conflict after Iran vowed harsh retaliation.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, but it has said it killed other senior leaders, including Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al Arouri and Mohammed Deif, the movement’s strategic planner.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the 61-year-old Sinwar was elected as Hamas leader in Gaza in 2017 after gaining a reputation as a “ruthless enforcer” and an implacable enemy of Israel.
He was formerly head of the Al Majd security apparatus which tracked, killed and punished Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel’s secret service before he was jailed.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Hamas’s newly appointed political chief Yahya Sinwar to accept a Gaza ceasefire, saying the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack was the crucial decider, AFP reports.
“He has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the ceasefire. And so I think this only underscores the fact that it is really on him to decide whether to move forward with a ceasefire that manifestly will help so many Palestinians in desperate need,” Blinken told reporters.