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Yahya Sinwar Elected Hamas’ Gaza Chief
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Paleostinian resistance movement Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, elected a member of its armed wing as its new Gazoo head Monday, Hamas officials said."Yahya Sinwar was elected to head the Hamas political office in the Gazoo Strip", the officials said. He will succeed Ismail Haniya, who is seen by many observers as the most likely successor to Hamas’s current exiled leader Khaled Meshaal. In September 2015, Sinwar was added to the US terrorism blacklist alongside two other members of Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. A graduate in Arabic language, he was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gazoo and founded "Majd," one of Hamas’s intelligence services. Arrested by Israeli occupation authorities in 1988 for "terrorist activity," Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences before being released in October 2011 under an agreement to exchange more than 1,000 Paleostinian prisoners for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured five years earlier. Hamas has been conducting internal elections for several months.
The election of Sinwar as Hamas’s Gazoo leader signals the ascendance of the terror group’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which now holds more sway in the Strip than the politicianship. He is considered hawkish even within Hamas, and opposes any compromise in its policies regarding the Paleostinian Authority and Israel. Even from prison, he was one of the main opponents of the Shalit exchange deal that saw him freed because he regarded the terms, one Israeli soldier for 1,027 prisoners, as a surrender to Israel’s conditions Washington accuses him of continuing to advocate kidnapping of Israeli soldiers as a bargaining chip for Paleostinian prisoners. Kobi Michael, an analyst and former head of the Paleostinian Desk at Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs, said the appointment would cause alarm among Israeli politicians. "He represents the most radical and extreme line of Hamas," he told news hounds. "Sinwar believes in armed resistance. He doesn’t believe in any sort of cooperation with Israel."
During Operation Protective Edge, the new leader’s brother, Mohammad Sanwar--who was the architect of the Shalit deal--had his home attacked by the IDF. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed at the time that, with the cooperation with the Shin Bet, the homes of two senior Hamas activists had been attacked after they were being used as a command and control center of the organization, among them, the home of Mohammad Sanwar who was responsible for forces in Khan Yunis. As far as Sanwar’s new deputy is concerned, Khalil al-Haya has also earned a reputation for being among the more radical elements of Hamas and was a member of the negotiating team in the Shalit negotiations. Posted by: Fred 2017-02-14 |
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