Hamas appoints ‘cold-blooded’ Yahya Sinwar as commander of its political wing after death of Ismail Haniyeh

Hamas named its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar as the chief of the Palestinian terrorist organisation after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, 2024. “The Islamic Resistance Movement 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 was quoted as saying in statement by an international media agency.

The international media agency claims that Sinwar has been hiding in Gaza since the start of the war with Israel. Sinwar spent half of his adult life in Israeli prisons and was the most powerful Hamas leader alive after Haniyeh’s killing. Sinwar, aged 61 was born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in Gaza and was elected as the leader of Hamas in Gaza 2017 after he got a reputation of a ruthless enforcer and nemesis of Israel, international media reported.

He was also very well connected with Mohamed Deif and the armed wing Qassam Brigades. Yahya Sinwar is at the top of Israel’s kill list as it seeks to destroy Hamas and its leadership after the October 7 attack in which militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 as hostages.

Yahya was the former head of the Al-Majd security apparatus, which was involved in punishing and killing Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israeli Secret Service before he was jailed. Notably, Ismail Haniyeh was killed after his residence was targeted in Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement, according to an international media report. Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

In a statement, Hamas said Haniyeh was killed in a treacherous Zionist Raid on his residence in Tehran. The IRGC said that Haniyeh was killed by a short-range projectile with a 7kg warhead from outside his residence in Tehran, international media reported. It said in a statement that the attack was carried out by Israel with support from criminal US government.”

“Based on the investigations and analysis conducted, this terrorist operation was carried out with the firing of short-range projectile equipped with a warhead of seven kilograms accompanied by a powerful explosion from outside the vicinity of guest’s residence,” the IRGC said in a statement.

The United States of America, however denied receiving advance knowledge of the assassination plot. Haniyeh was assassinated just hours after Israel’s airstrike in Lebanon’s Beirut killing Fuad Shukr, a military commander of Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.