2024-08-07 10:08:14
The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” announced the selection of its leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, to be the head of the movement’s political bureau, succeeding the late Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, a week ago.
The movement said in a statement published on Tuesday evening: “The Islamic Resistance Movement announces the selection of leader Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement’s political bureau, succeeding the martyr leader Ismail Haniyeh, may God have mercy on him.”
Sinwar takes this position to be the fourth Hamas leader to hold this position after Musa Abu Marzouk, Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas said in another statement that Sinwar was chosen “after in-depth and extensive consultations and deliberations in the movement’s leadership institutions.”
She added that “while expressing her confidence in Brother Abu Ibrahim as her leader in a sensitive phase and complex local, regional and international circumstances, she asks God Almighty to grant him success and guide his steps, and to write a clear and decisive victory for our people and our cause.”
The movement continued: “At this historic moment, we remember our martyred leader Ismail Haniyeh, may God have mercy on him, who presented in his leadership career a model of courageous, wise and open leadership. We are certain that Abu Ibrahim and his brothers in the movement’s leadership will complete his path and the path of previous leaders, and will preserve their jihadist and struggle legacy, until liberation and return.”
Hamas announced on Saturday that it was holding extensive consultations to select a new head of the political bureau after Haniyeh’s assassination, while the nominations revolved around a number of its leaders, headed by Khaled Meshaal, who previously held the position after the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Khalil al-Hayya, the movement’s deputy head in Gaza, Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior official in the political bureau, Zaher Jabarin, who has long been in charge of managing the movement’s financial affairs, in addition to the leader Mohammed Ismail Darwish.
Sinwar was born in 1962. Israel arrested him several times and sentenced him to four life sentences before he was released by the resistance in a prisoner exchange deal in 2011, known as the Gilad Shalit deal. He then returned to his activities in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and was elected head of the movement in the Gaza Strip in 2017 and again in 2021.
Sinwar, 61, is considered the movement’s de facto leader and has the upper hand in making decisions regarding the war and negotiations. His movements are surrounded by extreme secrecy, as he has not been seen in public since the outbreak of the war, despite intensive Israeli attempts to track him down.
The Hamas leader spent 23 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 2011, then elected as the movement’s leader in Gaza in 2017, and became wanted and included on the US “international terrorist” list.
Last update: August 6, 2024 – 22:53
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2024-08-07 10:08:14