The new leader chosen to lead Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh is Yahya Sinwar. A dramatic turn of events after the first rumours spoke rather of Muhammad Ismail Darwish. “A strong message of resistance” sent to Israel ten months after the start of the war in Gaza. “A strong message to the occupier that Hamas is continuing on the path of resistance,” said a Palestinian faction official.
A decision that shuffles the cards and shows that the one in charge inside Hamas is him, “the terrorist to the core, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre”, Yahya Sinwar. Who now, according to analysts, after the death of Haniyeh has “free hands” to decide for himself how to continue fighting against Israel, to manage the talks – suspended at the moment – for the truce and the release of the hostages. Hidden inside the tunnels of Gaza for ten months, Sinwar showed the world all his power this evening. Sweeping away with an official note the political leader in pectore, evidently acclaimed only by Doha and Tehran, Muhammad Ismail Darwishhead of the Shura Council and the true “boss of the economic and financial empire of Hamas”. The shadowy figure who for years has directed the transfer of money from Iran to the Islamic militia and investments around the world, was liquidated in the space of a few hours. The communication between him and Darwish – Israeli analysts stressed this morning – “is not so fluid and current”. Certainly the nomination of the treasurer of Hamas as political head, widely announced by the Arab media during the day and taken as a given, did not please under the tunnels of the Strip. And Sinwar has now taken over Hamas entirely.
As reported by the Ansa agency, the prediction had arrived a few days ago from the Middle East expert Michael Milstein: “With Haniyeh’s death, Sinwar is the man who really commands in the Strip,” he said. “He despised Haniyeh because he was among those in suits, without military experience, who did not suffer in prison like him and do not understand that the vision is jihad, not political projects,” he commented. For the analyst, with Haniyeh’s death, Sinwar “he didn’t toastbut his killing has certainly created a more comfortable operating space”. In fact, there is no one left on Sinwar’s path. No political leader from Doha, who travels between Arab capitals and weaves political plots that can disturb Gaza’s sleep. Sinwar is left alone. Even personally, since the men closest to him have been eliminated by Israel. First of all his lifelong friend, the very trustworthy Muhammad Deifkilled in a building in the southern Strip on July 13.
Betty Lahatformer director of the prison where he was detained, in Israel, describes him as a fickle man, but also fragile as when he was told that he had head cancer, later treated successfully by Israeli doctors. And the Israeli analyst Ehud Yaariwho interviewed him during his imprisonment, defines him “a cunning and sophisticated psychopath”. While Michael Koubi, a Shin Beth officer who interrogated him for hours during his captivity, remembers him as a being “hard and emotionless, with the eyes of a murderer”. Sinwar was released in the exchange of a thousand Palestinian prisoners for soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in the tunnels for five and a half years, in a decision taken by the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For the IDF, “there is only one place for Sinwar. And it is next to Deif.”
Meanwhile, tension in the area remains sky-high. While in the last few hours Israeli jets have been flying low over Beirut, breaking the sound barrier, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahreiterated that the Shiite group, together with Iran and the Yemeni Houthi rebels, will “respond” to the latest targeted assassinations by Israel, which is “afraid” of what could happen. Nasrallah did not mention the timing because “the Israeli wait is part of the punishment, the response and the battle which is also psychological”. A response that, he continued, could be “alone” by Hezbollah, to avenge the death of military commander Fuad Shukr, or “collective by the entire front”. Meanwhile, skirmishes continued on the border with Lebanon where the latest attack carried out by Hezbollah via drones caused seven injuries, one of whom is in critical condition. The IDF clarified that the damage was actually caused by an interceptor rocket launched by the army that missed its target in the air and hit the ground. Iran remains silent but, according to American media reports, Tehran is moving forward with preparations and has moved some missile launchers and carried out military exercises.
Regarding the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Iran said that not having made any arrests while a new reconstruction of the incident emerges according to which the political leader of Hamas was killed by a bomb placed under his bed a few hours before his assassination by two agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recruited by Mossad. According to the report, the two Iranians, members of the Pasdaran’s Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit, were in and out of Haniyeh’s room within minutes and were allowed to leave the compound without arousing suspicion. An hour later, Mossad smuggled them out of the country.
