Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of October 7 attacks, chosen as new Hamas leader

Palestinian militant group Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the October 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader.

The choice of Mr Sinwar, a secretive figure who leads Hamas’ hardliners and is close to Iran, was a defiant step.

Mr 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.

Hamas said in a statement it named Mr Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike.

Also last week, Israel said it had confirmed the death of the head of Hamas’ military wing Mohammed Deif in a July airstrike in Gaza. Hamas has not confirmed his death.

Unlike Mr Haniyeh, who had lived in exile in Qatar for years, Mr Sinwar has remained in Gaza.

As Hamas’ leader in the territory since 2017, he rarely appeared in public but kept an iron grip on Hamas’ rule.

Close to Mr Deif and the armed wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, he worked to build up the group’s military capabilities.

Mr Sinwar has been in deep hiding since the October 7 attacks while Israel unleashed its campaign in Gaza and the death toll among Palestinians, now near 40,000, rose.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television: “There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him.”

Mr Haniyeh, who had lived in self-imposed exile in Qatar since 2019, had played a direct role in negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza through US, Qatari and Egyptian negotiators — though he and other Hamas officials always ran proposals and positions by Mr Sinwar.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera television after the announcement, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said Mr Sinwar would continue the ceasefire negotiations.

“The problem in negotiations is not the change in Hamas,” he said, blaming Israel and its ally the US for the failure to seal a deal.

He said Hamas “remains steadfast in the battlefield and in politics … the person leading today is the one who led the fighting for more than 305 days and is still steadfast in the field.”