Who is Yahya Sinwar, the new Hamas leader, after Haniyeh?

Yesterday, Hamas announced the selection of Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement's political bureau, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh.

Sinwar as Hamas leader, succeeding Haniyeh In another statement, Hamas indicated that after in-depth and extensive consultations and deliberations in the movement's leadership institutions, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas decided to choose Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement's political bureau, succeeding leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Who is Yahya Sinwar? Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, or Yahya Sinwar, a prominent leader in the Hamas movement, hails from the historic city of Majdal Ashkelon, located northeast of the Gaza Strip, which fell to the Israeli occupation in 1948 and changed its name to “Ashkelon.”

Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1962, and grew up in difficult circumstances, suffering from poverty and cruelty.

His childhood was affected by the attacks on his family. The camps are under Israeli occupation. Sinwar studied at the Islamic University of Gaza and obtained a bachelor's degree in Arabic language.

Israel considers him the "Defense Minister of Hamas" because he is the link between the political and military wings of the movement, and describes him as "stubborn and the head of the hawkish wing in Hamas." He is also known as the mastermind behind Operation "Noah's Flood", which inflicted enormous human and military losses on the Israeli occupation, and shook the stereotypical image of the capabilities of its intelligence and security services.

During his university years, he headed the Islamic Bloc, the student branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. This period was pivotal in his life and helped him prepare for the leadership roles he later assumed in Hamas. Although he did not Although he was one of the early founders of the movement, he became part of its leadership and contributed to setting the directions and foundations for the Islamic resistance over many years.

Arrest of Sinwar Yahya Sinwar has been subjected to repeated arrests during his internal activities.

In 1982, he was arrested for the first time and released after several days, then arrested again in the same year and sentenced to 6 months in prison for his resistance activity.

In 1985, he was arrested again for 8 months on charges of establishing Hamas's special security apparatus, known as "Majd", which was resisting the occupation in Gaza Strip and combating his local collaborators. He was arrested for the third time in 1988 and sentenced to four life sentences, on charges of establishing the “Majd” security apparatus and participating in establishing the first military apparatus of Hamas.

Sinwar spent 23 consecutive years in the occupation prisons, including four years in solitary confinement.

During his detention, he led the senior leadership of Hamas prisoners in prisons and participated in a series of hunger strikes, including: Strikes of 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004.

Liberation of Sinwar Yahya Sinwar was released in 2011 as part of the “Wafa al-Ahrar” deal, where Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

After his release, Sinwar quickly rose through the ranks. Hamas, where he was chosen to lead the movement in Gaza in 2017.

Since the start of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, regarding a truce or ceasefire, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, it seemed that Sinwar was the one controlling its course, and had the final say regarding the fate of the Israeli hostages kidnapped in Gaza.

Sinwar's influence Israeli defense officials also believe, as Haaretz reported last November, that “Hamas’s external leadership does not have much influence” compared to Sinwar.

The mediators indicated that Sinwar's long-term goal is to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, end Israeli military pressure on Hamas, and ensure the movement's survival.

Israel has made eliminating Sinwar a key element in its goal of destroying Hamas. CNN reported before Haniyeh's assassination that CIA Director William Burns said during a closed-door meeting held last July in the US state of Idaho that "Sinwar is not worried about his death," but he is facing pressure to accept a ceasefire agreement and end the war with Israel.

But it seems that Haniyeh's assassination has changed the position of the entire movement, as evidenced by his selection as head of the political bureau.

Haniyeh's assassination

Last Wednesday, the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" announced the assassination of its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in an Israeli raid that targeted his residence in the Iranian capital, Tehran. The movement said in a statement that it "mourns to the sons of the Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation, and all the free people of the world the martyred leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, who was killed in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president."