TEL AVIV — Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, is the undisputed leader of Hamas after the militant group’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated and Israel confirmed it had killed Mohammed Deif, the military chief.
Until now, Sinwar has remained largely out of the spotlight, a shadowy figure believed to be hiding in Hamas’ labyrinth of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip. But his appointment as the group’s political leader has left many wondering what it could mean for the ongoing cease-fire and hostage release talks.
For Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, Sinwar’s promotion suggests it’s business as usual for the group. “The selection of Sinwar represents harmony within Hamas,” he told NBC News in a statement Tuesday, adding that the group had “chosen a leader at the heart of the ongoing battle.”
The group announced his appointment as political leader Tuesday, saying in a statement that he was unanimously voted in after deliberations by its Shura Council — a consultative body that elects Hamas’ politburo with members in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israeli prisons, and the broader Palestinian diaspora. There was no real competition.
It means Sinwar, who was already in charge of the day-to-day governance of Gaza, will now take the top job as political leader of the group he joined in 1987.
His appointment came six days after Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in Tehran, shortly after he attended the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israel has been widely blamed for the strike, which also killed Haniyeh’s bodyguard, but has not officially commented on the attack.
Unlike Haniyeh, who lived mostly in Qatar, playing Hamas’ envoy to the outside world and presiding over the cease-fire talks, the last known sighting of Sinwar was in a video filmed three days after Oct. 7.
“Whoever decided to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh does not care about the hostages,” said Thabeet Elhmour, a Palestinian political analyst and writer based in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis. “This will not help in embracing the mediator, especially since reports have indicated we were very close to a prisoner exchange deal.”
That view was echoed by Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a foreign policy analyst with Al-Shabaka, a transnational think tank.
“Haniyeh’s presence in Qatar enabled him to represent Palestinians at an international level,” he wrote in a recent analysis. “His…
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