Israel vowed to eliminate new Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with regional tensions threatening to boil over as the Gaza war entered its 11th month on Wednesday.
Israeli Army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi vowed to “find him (Sinwar), attack him” and force Hamas to find another leader.
The naming of Sinwar to lead the Palestinian group came as Israel braced for potential Iranian retaliation over the killing of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh last week in Tehran.
Speaking at a military base on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “determined” to defend itself.
“We are prepared both defensively and offensively,” he told new recruits.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Hamas named Yahya Sinwar as the new chief of its “political bureau,” the highest position in the organization, following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
Sinwar, who has led Hamas in Gaza since 2017, is widely regarded as the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, where thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza. It is believed that 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas openly seeks the destruction of Israel.
Sinwar was chosen by Hamas’s 50-member Shura Council, a consultative body made up of officials elected by Hamas members from four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora, and security prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli officials believe that Sinwar has been hiding in Hamas’s extensive tunnel network beneath Gaza since the massacre he orchestrated 10 months ago. They suspect he may be in tunnels under Khan Younis or Rafah, possibly surrounded by hostages.
After the October 7 attack, IDF spokesman Richard Hecht called Sinwar the “face of evil” and described him as a “dead man walking.” Hecht, however, did not curse those killing innocent children and women in Gaza.
In February, the IDF released a video, filmed on October 10, that purportedly shows Sinwar walking through a Gaza tunnel with several family members.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
