According
to Reuters, Sinwar, the architect of the most devastating attack on Israel in
decades, has been in hiding in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since
the start of the war.
"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.
News of the appointment, which came as Israel braces for a
likely attack from Iran following the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, was greeted
with a salvo of rockets from Gaza by the resistance group still fighting
Israeli troops in the besieged enclave.
"The appointment means that Israel needs to face Sinwar
over a solution to Gaza war," said a regional diplomat familiar with the
talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar, which are aimed at bringing a halt to the
fighting in Gaza and a return of 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still held in
the enclave.
"It
is a message of toughness and it is uncompromising."
Sinwar, who spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons,
was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive following the assassination of
Haniyeh, which has left the region on the brink of a wider regional conflict
after Iran vowed harsh retaliation.
Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel
Hagari, blamed Sinwar for the Oct 7 attack and said Israel would continue to pursue
him.
"There
is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest
of the Oct 7 terrorists," he told Al-Arabiya television, according to a
statement released by the military. "That is the only place we're
preparing and intending for him."
In a sign that the movement had united around the choice of
Sinwar, Khaled Meshaal, a former leader who had been seen as a potential
successor to Haniyeh, was said by senior sources in the movement to have backed
Sinwar "in loyalty to Gaza and its people, who are waging the battle of
the Flood of Al-Aqsa".
For
Israel, the appointment confirms Hamas as a foe dedicated to its destruction
and is likely to reinforce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that
Israel must pursue its campaign in Gaza to the end.
The White House declined to comment on Sinwar's appointment.
But a person familiar with Washington's thinking said the selection suggested
that Hamas could toughen its position in ceasefire negotiations and make it harder
to reach a deal.
Israel was already aware that even before his formal
appointment Sinwar would have the final word on any agreement to halt the
fighting, and the announcement merely set the seal on that.
Ten months since the surprise attack by thousands of
Hamas-led fighters who swarmed into Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip
in the early hours of the morning of Oct. 7, the war has turned the Middle East
on its head and threatened to spiral into a wider regional conflict.
Some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed and more than
250 taken hostage into Gaza. In response, Israel launched a relentless campaign
that has so far killed almost 40,000 Palestinians and left the densely
populated enclave in ruins.
Attempts at reaching a ceasefire that would give the
exhausted population a respite and enable the hostages remaining in captivity
to be brought home have foundered amid mutual recriminations from Hamas and
Israel.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that the
movement remained committed to reaching a deal and the team that handled the
negotiations under Haniyeh would continue under Sinwar, who he said was
following the talks closely.
But
Hani Al-Masri, a political analyst in Ramallah, said Sinwar's appointment to
lead the movement overall was a direct challenge to Israel, and sent a message
about Hamas' adherence to his "extremist and resistant approach".
"As Sinwar manages the negotiations, he will manage the
movement," he said.
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