Mastermind behind attack on Israel new Hamas leader

Hardliner Yahya Sinwar picked after Ismail Haniyeh killed

- JACK JEFFERY

Yahya Sinwar's appointment as the top leader of Hamas formalises a role he assumed in the early hours of 7 October, when the surprise attack into Israel that he helped mastermind ushered in the bloodiest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He is seen as a hardliner with closer ties to Hamas’s armed wing than his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an explosion in Iran’s capital last month that was widely blamed on Israel and could spark an all-out regional war. Sinwar was already seen as having the final word on any ceasefire agreement for Gaza and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.

But he is deep in hiding inside Gaza, and mediators say it takes several days to exchange messages with him. That raises questions about how he would manage a sprawling organisation with cadres across the Middle East.

Hamas has survived the killing of several top leaders across more than three decades, while maintaining a high degree of internal cohesion – and tapping Sinwar, who tops Israel’s mostwanted list, was a show of defiance. But Hamas has never faced a crisis of this magnitude – and the man who engineered it is now charged with managing the fallout.