Yahya Sinwar will be the new political leader of Hamas following the assassination of Ishmail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Sinwar is the military leader of Hamas in Gaza and has been running the war against Israel from an underground bunker.

Viewed by the Israelis as the mastermind of the Oct 7 attacks, he has been labelled a “dead man walking” by military chiefs.

Commenting on the appointment of Sinwar to Saudi outlet Al-Arabia, Daniel Hagan, the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, said there is “only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the Oct 7 terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him”.

Deif, viewed as Sinwar’s second in command, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza last month.

Sinwar, who has not appeared in public since Oct 7, will now become more powerful as the overall leader of Hamas.

Having spent over 20 years in Israeli jail, he speaks fluent Hebrew and was even saved by Israeli surgeons who removed his brain tumour in 2004.

Haniyeh was Hamas’s main negotiator in the ceasefire talks prior to his death in an explosion while visiting the Iranian capital last week and it is unclear how the fragile peace negotiations will be affected by the decision.

The Hamas delegation negotiating a ceasefire with Israel will now be supervised by Sinwar.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Beirut, hailed the “unanimous” decision to appoint Sinwar as the new leader.

“It’s too early to predict what the process will lead to,” Hamdan added.

Choice was surprise to observers

The decision by Hamas’s religious Shura council to appoint Sinwar is viewed as a surprise by experts in the Middle East who had speculated that Khaled Mashal, Haniyeh’s predecessor, would return as political leader.

Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy leader of Hamas’s Gaza regional politburo, was considered an alternative option.

Haniyeh was first elected political leader of Hamas in 2017 and was re-elected by the Shura council in 2021.

While it is widely believed that Israel was behind the killing of Haniyeh, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is yet to officially claim responsibility.