Iran’s henchman to lead Hamas

The elevation of Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded Hamas’s cold-blooded slaughter of 1200 Jews in Israel on October 7, to the organisation’s top leadership position should end naive speculation that there could be a side to the terrorist organisation other than terrorism. Despite unrelenting Israeli efforts to find and kill him, Sinwar, 61, is believed to be still commanding his forces from tunnels beneath Gaza, unfortunately. That has not stopped him being named Hamas’s chief following last week’s assassination of its former politburo boss, Ismail Haniyeh, in the heart of Tehran, where he was reportedly under heavy Iranian protective guard.

Analysts who follow Hamas closely believe Sinwar’s goal is an uncompromising, “maniacal march to armageddon”. His ascendancy signals the takeover of Hamas by what have been termed “Sinwar fanatics” hellbent, as analyst Seth Mandel wrote in Commentary magazine, on an uncompromising, “all-out battle (and) a fight to the death with Israel”. Haniyeh, despite his longstanding commitment to Hamas’s gruesome terrorism, was seen as more moderate than Sinwar, whose rise is expected to align not just Hamas but also Hezbollah and the Houthi terrorists in Yemen far more closely with Iran’s hegemonic ambitions in the Middle East, pivoted on Israel’s destruction.

Tehran in recent years has supported Hamas with funds, military training and equipment. But the relationship between Tehran’s Shiite clerics and Gaza’s Sunni Muslims has sometimes been fraught. That is likely to be different with Sinwar in full command of Hamas. In Gaza, the organisation’s stronghold, he has not hesitated to use ordinary Palestinians as human shields. After Haniyeh’s death, according to The Wall Street Journal, Sinwar insisted that a new Hamas leader had to be “close to Iran” – himself. As Hugh Lovatt, of the European Council of Foreign Relations, wrote, Sinwar’s elevation “puts at the top of the group someone who is seen to be much closer to Iran”. That puts paid to whatever hopes still existed for an end to the Gaza conflict and release of the remaining Israeli hostages, whose capture he planned. His rise also makes a two-state solution more remote than ever. As Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said: “The election of Yahya Sinwar must send a clear message to the world that the Palestinian issue is now completely controlled by Iran and Hamas.”

Sinwar, he said, “wants to achieve Palestinian statehood and shares Iran’s goal of destroying the state of Israel to achieve it”. Paradoxically, Sinwar’s rise also reflects Israel’s remarkable success in depleting Hamas’s leadership. Israel killed Haniyeh’s second-in-command, Saleh al-Arouri, in January. Last month, it killed Hamas’s military commander in Gaza, Mohammed Deif. Deif’s deputy was killed earlier. The price for that, however, was to put Sinwar in pole position for the top job. He is hellbent on “fulfilling a divinely ordained mission”. For that reason, his rise to the top of the pile makes it even more vital for Israel and the world that the Jewish state perseveres in its war until it has destroyed Hamas.