Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, has been named by the Palestinian group as its new leader following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Sinwar, a prominent Palestinian politician, has been serving as the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip since February 2017. He was born in 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp. He is one of the co-founders of Hamas's security apparatus. Sinwar was imprisoned by Israel in 1989. He served 22 years of a life sentence before being released in a 2011 prisoner exchange. Sinwar has been regarded as one of the planners of the historic October 7 attacks on Israel, which caught the regime off guard. Haniyeh was assassinated last week in an Israeli attack in Tehran during his visit to attend the presidential swearing-in ceremony. Iran has vowed retaliation for the Israeli assassination.