A senior council will replace Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli troops last week in Rafah, as head of the Gaza terror group Hamas, two Hamas officials told the French news agency, AFP.
“The Hamas leadership’s approach is not to appoint a successor to the late chief, the martyr Yahya Sinwar, until their next elections” scheduled for March “if conditions permit,” a well-informed source from the Palestinian group told AFP.
IDF drone footage of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's last moments
(Video: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
The council, which includes five members, was established after the assassination in August of the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, following the difficulty in communicating with Sinwar in Gaza. The council, based in Doha, Qatar, includes the representative of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al-Haya; the representative of Hamas in the West Bank, Zaher Jabarin; the Hamas representative of Palestinians abroad, Khaled Mashaal; as well as the head of the Shura Council of Hamas, Mohammed Darwish.
The name of the fifth member, the secretary of the Political Bureau, was not published since he is never identified "for security reasons."
Another source in Hamas said that the leadership of the terrorist organization discussed the question of appointing a new leader without announcing him by name - but this possibility was dropped.
These are the members of the council that will replace Sinwar to lead Hamas:
Khaled Mashaal
Mashaal is considered one of the most powerful people in the political bureau of Hamas, but his views differed from those of Sinwar - also, including when it comes to the relationship with Iran. Mashaal is currently the leader of Hamas abroad. He headed the political bureau of Hamas for 21 years, from 1996 to 2017, when he decided to end his position, and was replaced by Haniyeh. In 2021, he was elected again as the leader of Hamas abroad in an attempt to return to the arena Palestinian politics. In 1997, he was saved from an assassination attempt on his life in a failed Mossad operation in Jordan.
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Hamas representative of Palestinians abroad Khaled Mashaal
(Photo: Osama Faisal,/AP File)
Mashaal was indicted last month in the U.S. for involvement in the October 7 massacre. He lives a luxurious life in Qatar, and in the past his fortune was estimated at $4 billion to $5 billion.
In recent days there has been a round of interviews to mark the anniversary of the October 7 massacre. In one of the interviews Mashaal caused a stir when he claimed that Hamas' losses are "tactical," while Israel's losses are "strategic," especially in the international arena. He was criticized by residents of Gaza and also by the members of the Fatah leadership, who appeared to grow closer to Mashaal after the elimination of Haniyeh. Regarding that assassination, Mashaal said - probably by mistake - that "Iran killed Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran."
Khalil al-Haya
Khalil al-Haya, Sinwar's deputy, left the Gaza Strip before October 7 - and since then he is considered one of the senior leaders conducting the negotiations for a cease-fire and a hostage deal on behalf of the terrorist organization. Al-Haya also has a good relationship with Iran - where he arrived after the elimination of Haniyeh to participate in his funeral. The New York Times reported that Al-Haya was part of the "limited military council" that Sinwar convened for two years to plan the October 7 attack, and was also the special envoy for the secret talks that took place on the subject with Iran and Hezbollah.
Six months ago Al-Haya signaled that Hamas would not agree to a deal until the end of the war. "If we are not promised that the war will end, why would I agree to hand over the hostages?" he said. In the same interview with the AP news agency, al-Haya claimed that the IDF had not destroyed even 20% of Hamas' capabilities at the time. "The solution is to reach agreements," he said. When asked if he regrets the October 7 massacre, he replied that he does not - despite the destruction in the Gaza Strip. He asked rhetorically: "Suppose they destroy Hamas. Will the Palestinian people disappear?"
Zaher Jabarin
Jabarin, 55, is considered the "economic brain" of Hamas. He served as the holder of the prisoner file in Hamas and was the deputy leader of the terrorist organization in the West Bank until the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.
A comprehensive article in the Wall Street Journal after that assassination reported that in recent years Jabarin has become the de facto supervisor of an economic empire that the United States estimates is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, an empire that finances the terrorist activities of Hamas.
Jabarin is the one who manages Hamas' financial ties with Iran on behalf of Hamas and, according to U.S. and Israeli sources, takes care of the transfer of funds from Tehran to the Gaza Strip. He is also responsible for a series of companies that transfer regular income to Hamas, and operates a network of private supporters and businessmen who transfer funds to the terrorist organization.
Mohamed Ismail Darwish
The relatively unknown among the members of the council is Mohamed Ismail Darwish, also known as Abu Omar Hassan, who heads the Shura Council of Hamas. A week after Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran, it was reported that he had been chosen to replace him as head of the Political Bureau - but then Hamas announced that Sinwar had been appointed as his successor.
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