After the liquidation of Ismail Hanija, Jahja Sinvar was appointed as the new political leader of the terrorist group Hamas. He is believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The radical Islamic organization Hamas has a new political leader. Jahja Sinvar was appointed to that position, it was confirmed by the Palestinian organization. He will succeed Ismail Hanija as head of the Hamas politburo, who was killed in last Sunday's Israeli attack in Tehran.
Sinvar is believed to be the organizer of the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 last year in southern Israel. That operation was the reason for the start of the war in the Gaza Strip. About 1.200 people were killed in the Hamas operation, and several hundred Israelis were kidnapped.
According to Palestinian claims that cannot be independently verified, around 40.000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli operations in Gaza so far. The appointment of Sinwar as the head of Hamas is considered by observers as a move that Israel will interpret as a provocation.
It is unclear how this appointment will affect the current situation in the region, where a new war threatens to break out. After the liquidation of Haniyeh, Iran announced a revenge action against Israel, and the Israelis have already announced a counterattack - if Tehran decides to take that step. Escalation, it is assumed, could have consequences not only for that region, but for the entire world.
Where is Sinvar located?
After the massacre in October last year, Sinvar operated from underground. "Only God knows" where he is, that's how Osama Hamdan, one of the high-ranking Hamas officials he spoke with in Beirut, answered a question about Sinwar by a journalist from the German public service ARD a few months ago.
The new head of Hamas is probably in an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip. He is believed to be hiding in Hamas tunnels under the Palestinian coastal area. His predecessor, Haniyeh, lived in the Qatari capital, Doha, and had the status of the supreme diplomat of Hamas. American sources state that Sinvar could be somewhere in the tunnels under Khan Yunis.
Sinvar's goal is clear: he wants to destroy the Jewish state. "Jahja must always count on killing him. And we have to too," said Hamdan
Sinwar, as Hamdan claims, wants an end to the Israeli occupation: not only of East Jerusalem, but also of the entire West Bank. When he talks about "the end of the occupation", Hamdan is referring to the whole of Palestine, which according to Hamas' interpretation de facto means the destruction of Israel in its current form.
Underground leader
Sinwar, a man referred to by his like-minded friends only by his first name, disappeared from public view after October 7, but as the undisputed leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he played a key role in the terrorist group. From underground, he continued to control the Islamist militia, i.e. what remained of it after the start of the Israeli operation. According to the German ARD, he also had the last word when making a decision on whether Hamas will accept a possible truce in Gaza, which has been intensively bombarded by the Israelis for months - or not.
Little is known about Sinvar. He was born in 1962 in Gaza. He became a member of Hamas in 1987, immediately after the founding of that group. The Israelis arrested him in 1988 and he was sentenced to four life sentences for allegedly killing two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian collaborators with his own hands. He has been one of the most wanted members of Hamas in Israel for years and is at the very top of the "kill list".
Organizer of terror
Sinvar spent more than two decades behind bars. He was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange. Six years later, he was appointed the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The man who is also called Abu Ibrahim or "the butcher of Khan Yunis" was Hamas' number 2 for years - and Ismail Haniyeh's right-hand man.
Under his baton, Hamas became even more radical than it already was. It was Sinvar who intensified contacts with Iran in recent years, and "hooked" Hamas to the so-called "Axis of Resistance". At the same time, with the help of Tehran, he additionally equipped his organization militarily.
"Zionists all over the world should know: woe to those who touch our Al-Aqsa Mosque," he used to say during public appearances in the Gaza Strip. Or sentences like this: "Netanyahu will curse the day his mother gave birth to him."
At the very beginning of the war in Gaza, the Israeli army labeled Sinvar and his closest associates as "Dead man walking", people who are practically "walking dead". It was Sinvar who orchestrated the terrorist attack on October 7, said the Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, adding that they would find him and kill him.
It is interesting that the Israelis have already saved the life of 61-year-old Sinvar. When he fell ill with cancer in prison, the doctors helped him defeat the evil disease. And when the Israelis asked him if he was grateful for that, he allegedly replied: "No, it's your duty."
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