Behind the scenes as Hamas selected its new chief | NESMAG

Over the previous week, watched by the world’s media, the highest leaders of Hamas descended on Qatar to decide on a brand new political chief for his or her group.

Delegates flooded in from throughout the Middle East after virtually a yr of combating between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

Some arrived shaken, having woken simply days earlier than to the information that the group’s earlier political chief – Ismail Haniyeh – had been killed in a blast in Tehran, allegedly by Israel.

Haniyeh, who had overseen his group’s negotiators in talks with Israel, performed a vital function in Hamas, balancing the militant wing’s need to take the battle to Israel with calls from some to achieve a settlement and finish the battle.

His place, it was clear, needed to be stuffed shortly.

At the mourning ceremony in Doha, Hamas leaders lined up shoulder to shoulder in an enormous white tent with carpets and fancy chairs, embellished with photos of Ismail Haniyeh. Hundreds of individuals gathered to pay their respects to the motion’s late chief and his bodyguard.

The scene was greater than a memorial service – it signalled the tip of an period and the start of a brand new, extra excessive section.

This was not the primary time I had witnessed Hamas’s prime officers collect to decide on a brand new chief after an sudden funeral. Back in 2004 I witnessed them meet after Israel assassinated the group’s founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – the assembly going down in his home in Gaza. Less than a month later, Israel killed his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.

But this time the backstage discussions mirrored the extent of the disaster and challenges they’re dealing with.

Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October final yr, killing about 1,200 individuals and taking 251 hostages again into Gaza. Since then, Israel’s navy retaliation has killed greater than 39,600 individuals, in accordance with the Hamas-run well being ministry, and wounded tens of 1000’s extra. More than half the buildings in Gaza have been broken or destroyed and virtually your complete inhabitants has been displaced. Dissent towards Hamas, which has dominated Gaza since 2007, has been rising. The group itself has taken extreme losses.

On prime of this, the killing of Ismail Haniyeh on 31 July in Tehran – a spot he had at all times felt to be a protected haven – was an actual shock for the organisation.

Hamas is satisfied that Haniyeh was killed by an anti-personnel missile whereas he was searching on his telephone. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have stated a projectile with a 7kg warhead was used. Some Western media stories say he was killed by a bomb planted within the room beforehand.

Back at Haniyeh’s mourning ceremony in Doha, one man in his mid-60s with white hair and a brief beard stood in a nook away from the highlight.

“Pay close attention to him,” a Hamas media officer advised me. Who was he? “He is the shadowy man, Abu Omar Hassan,” he stated.

Abu Omar Hassan, or Mohamed Hassan Darwish, is the top of the Supreme Shura Council, the highest consultative physique in Hamas. According to Hamas’s structure, he was in prime place to be the organisation’s interim head till elections which had been scheduled for subsequent March.

“He is the man of the big missions,” I used to be advised.

As the mourning ceremony ended, these leaders’ actual work started. For two days, the motion’s veteran faces and shadowy figures held conferences in Doha, which has hosted Hamas’s political bureau since 2012, to elect a brand new chief.

They selected Yahya Sinwar, already the group’s chief inside Gaza since 2017. The selection might come as a shock to many, however anybody following his profession since Israel launched him within the 2011 change deal for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit knew he was at all times more likely to lead Hamas sooner or later.

No political chief in Hamas has ever been nearer to the group’s armed wing. His brother Mohammed leads the biggest Hamas navy battalion, whereas Mohammed Deif – the elusive Hamas veteran who led its armed wing for 20 years till Israel stated it killed him final month – was his neighbour, good friend, and classmate. The pair grew up collectively in Gaza’s sprawling Khan Younis refugee camp.

Despite all this, many may even see appointing him to crucial place in Hamas as insanity. Israel’s safety companies consider Sinwar deliberate and executed the assault on southern Israel, and he’s prime of their wished record.

“Not all of the people inside Hamas leadership were in favour of the decision,” a senior Hamas official advised me. “Some leaders raised their concerns, others pushed for a more moderate person. But in the end he got the majority of the votes.”

Another Hamas official who attended the conferences stated the motion felt unable to decide on the highly effective shadow operator Abu Omar Hassan as a result of he had little public profile and was unknown outdoors the motion, whereas the 7 October assault had given Yahya Sinwar international notoriety.

“Sinwar has become a trademark after 7 October and he has great popularity in the Arab and Islamic worlds,” the official stated. “He enjoys close relations with the axis of resistance supported by Iran, and his appointment in the midst of the war sends a message of defiance to Israel.”

The “axis of resistance” is a community of armed teams backed by Iran. Other members comparable to Lebanon-based Hezbollah additionally current threats to Israel.

Many Arab and a few Western officers urged Hamas towards naming Sinwar as chief due to his connection to the 7 October assaults. He and the organisation he now leads are proscribed as terrorists by many governments within the West.

“One of the reasons why we voted for him is because we want to honour him for masterminding the attacks” the official stated. “October 7th belongs to him so he deserves to lead the movement.”

Ten months on from that assault, all makes an attempt to agree a ceasefire have to date failed. The BBC understands that the 2 essential mediators – Qatar and Egypt – are engaged on a brand new ceasefire proposal.

Leaks counsel the plan is predicated on convincing Iran to not reply militarily to the assassination of Haniyeh in its territory, in change for Israel ending its battle in Gaza and withdrawing troops from the Philadelphi hall.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a buffer zone, solely about 100m (330ft) large in elements, which runs alongside the Gaza aspect of the 13km (8-mile) border with Egypt. Gaza’s solely different land border is with Israel itself.

A Palestinian official accustomed to the ceasefire negotiations advised me in Doha: “Egyptian intelligence has already sent a team to Doha and there are meetings to formulate an action plan based on sparing the region a possible Iranian response… in exchange for a ceasefire.”

For now, the drumbeat of battle is simply getting louder, with Sinwar, essentially the most extremist determine in Hamas, set to guide the group for the subsequent 5 years – if he survives the battle.