Hamas announced Tuesday that it had named Gaza-based leader Yayha Sinwar as its new leader to replace political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran, Iran, last week while attending the presidential inauguration there.
Sinwar, who is regarded as the architect of the October 7 terror attack in which Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis, is thought to be hiding underground in a tunnel in Gaza, possibly surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields.
The Times of Israel reported:
Sinwar was selected by Hamas’s 50-strong Shura Council, a consultative body composed of officials elected by Hamas members in four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and security prisoners in Israeli jails.
Sinwar “is now the most powerful figure in Hamas, formally too,” notes Palestinian affairs analyst Ohad Hemo on Channel 12. “That was already essentially the case, now it’s official.”
“It’s a show of faith” by the terror group, “whose leadership is rapidly shrinking,” adds Hemo, “and it returns the formal center of Hamas power to Gaza,” whereas in recent years much of the official leadership was overseas — including Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal.
Sinwar has lived a bizarre and violent life. He owes his life to Israeli doctors, who saved him from brain cancer when he was serving a prison sentence in Israel. Upon his release, he went back to trying to kill as many Israelis as possible.
While Sinwar may have had the backing of the “Shura Council,” there have been reports of frustration among people in Gaza who are bearing the brunt of the war that he brought upon them by attacking Israel without any provocation.
One advantage Sinwar has over his predecessor is that he is actually in Gaza, not in a five-star hotel in Doha, Qatar, or in a villa in Turkey. Many other Hamas leaders have become billionaires in exile, exploiting aid and smuggling.
The choice of Sinwar also presents risks for the terror group: Israel could locate him at any moment, and he cannot easily communicate with the rest of the organization. If he is killed or captured, Hamas will again be leaderless.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
