Hamas names Oct 7 mastermind Sinwar as leader after Haniyeh assassination

7/8/2024 6:10

        Hamas named its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar as successor to former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week, the group said on Tuesday, in a move that reinforces the radical path pursued since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
        
        Sinwar, the architect of the most devastating attack on Israel in decades, has been in hiding in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since the start of the war.
        
        "The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the selection of Commander Yahya Sinwar as the head of the political bureau of the movement, succeeding the martyr Commander Ismail Haniyeh, may Allah have mercy on him," the movement said in a brief statement.
        
        News of the appointment, which came as Israel braces for a response to the killing of Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, was greeted with a salvo of rockets from Gaza from the bands of militants still fighting Israeli troops in the besieged enclave.