After two days of lengthy negotiations in Doha, Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as its new overall chief, replacing Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Tehran last week.
Since 2017, Sinwar has served as the group’s leader inside the Gaza strip. He will now become leader of its political wing.
The Hamas leadership unanimously chose Sinwar to lead the movement, a senior Hamas official told the BBC.
The announcement comes at a moment of soaring tensions in the Middle East, as Iran and its allies threaten retaliation for the killing of Haniyeh, which they blame on Israel. Israel has not commented.
Over the course of two days in Doha, intensive meetings involving Hamas’s leading figures hammered out the options for the group’s next chief.
Many scenarios were discussed, but ultimately, just two names were put forward: Yahya Sinwar, and Mohammed Hassan Darwish, a shadowy figure who heads the General Shura Council, a body that elects Hamas’s Politburo.
The council voted unanimously to choose Sinwar, in what one Hamas official described to the BBC as “a message of defiance to Israel”.
