OAN Staff James Meyers
3:25 PM – Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The Islamist terrorist organization Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar, its local political leader in Gaza, to take over as the militant group’s top leader.
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Since 2017, Sinwar has served as the group’s political leader specifically in the Gaza strip, but he will now become the leader of Hamas’ whole political wing.
Hamas members unanimously chose Sinwar to lead their Islamist movement, a senior Hamas official told the BBC.
This follows the death of Hamas’s last political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran, Iran, a week ago.
Sinwar, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the group’s October 7th terrorist attack against Israel, is thought to be hiding in Hamas’s underground tunnel system, which is far below the surface.
Last week, the Israeli military also confirmed that a strike was carried out in early July, which killed another Hamas senior leader, Mohammed Deif.
Haniyeh had been leading Hamas’s negotiating efforts for a ceasefire agreement with the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, Iran is preparing to retaliate after the assassination was carried out against Haniyeh. Israel has not publicly taken credit for the death.
“Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said on Wednesday that the U.S. government, which has also been mediating the talks along with Qatar and Egypt, would ‘work hard to make sure that we’re doing things to help take the temperature down, and address issues through diplomatic means,’” the New York Times reported.
The U.S. has now sent additional military assets to the region in order to assist Israel’s defense ahead of any retaliatory attack, as well as to defend U.S. forces already in the Middle East.
The newly appointed leader comes after seven U.S. personnel were injured in a rocket attack on Monday at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. Hezbollah had attacked Israel with an onslaught of drones and rockets that left two Israeli military personnel injured.
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