Hamas has named its Gaza Strip leader Yahya Sinwar as successor to , the group says in a move that reinforces the radical path pursued since the October 7 attack on Israel.
Sinwar, accused of being 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.
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.
Sinwar, who spent half his adult life in Israeli prisons, was the most powerful Hamas leader left alive following the assassination of Haniyeh, which has left the region on the brink of a wider regional conflict after Iran vowed harsh retaliation.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination but it has said it killed other senior leaders, including Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed in Beirut, and Mohammed Deif, the movement's military commander.
"There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists," Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told al-Arabiya television, according to a statement released by the military.
"That is the only place we're preparing and intending for him."
In a sign that the movement had united around the choice of Sinwar, Khaled Meshaal, a former leader who had been seen as a potential successor to Haniyeh, was said by senior sources in the movement to have backed Sinwar "in loyalty to Gaza and its people, who are waging the battle of the Flood of al-Aqsa".
Israel's chief military spokesman blamed Sinwar for the October 7 attack and said Israel would continue to pursue him. Source: EPA / MOHAMMED SABER/EPA
Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas' October 7 attack in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government. More than 39,653 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The October 7 attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
