Sinwar, 61, was the leader of the militant group's movement in the Gaza Strip, and is seen as the mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

In the aftermath of the 7 October attacks in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that "every Hamas leader is a dead man".

The prime minister vowed to kill the three top members of the militant group he held responsible for the atrocities, in which 1,200 Israelis died: Qatar-based political leader Ismail Haniyeh; leader of Hamas's military wing Mohammed Deif; and Yahya Sinwar; the leader of Hamas in Gaza.

Haniyeh was killed in a rocket strike in Tehran last week – with all fingers pointed at Israel as the culprit. Days later, Israel announced that Deif had been killed in Gaza in July. Hamas has not confirmed Deif's death, but in a show of defiance, the group has announced Sinwar, the last survivor, as its new political leader.

Who is Yahya Sinwar?

Sinwar is seen as the mastermind of the 7 October attacks and one of the militant group's "most influential leaders", said The New York Times, "wielding outsize power while remaining mostly hidden in tunnels beneath Gaza".

He was born in a Gaza refugee camp in 1962, and has spent at least 22 years of his adult life in Israeli prisons, learning Hebrew and studying Israeli culture. He founded the Hamas security service known as al-Majd, with which he hunted down Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel – leading to the nickname "the Butcher of Khan Yunis". He has since built up the group's military strength, helping to establish the armed wing known as the Qassam Brigades.

In 1989, he was sentenced to life in prison for killing two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians. But he was released in 2011, along with more than 1,000 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners, in a highly controversial exchange for one captive Israeli soldier. Sinwar was designated a "global terrorist" by the US in 2015, and two years later appointed head of Hamas's political bureau in Gaza.

Sinwar, 61, is one of several Hamas leaders whose arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court over allegations of war crimes. A top target of Israel, he has managed to evade assassination by rarely appearing in public.

What does his selection mean for Hamas?

Despite his importance, "few would have expected Sinwar to be the group's next leader", said Hugh Lovatt at the European Council on Foreign Relations. But the death of Haniyeh, a relative moderate, has "tipped the group into a more hardline direction", he told  The Associated Press.

Hamas's selection of this "secretive figure close to Iran" is "likely to provoke Israel". It comes at a "volatile moment" with Iran vowing revenge for the rocket strike on its soil, and for the Israeli assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon hours earlier. Iran and Hezbollah have both praised Sinwar's appointment.

It also signals that Hamas leadership in Gaza has "taken over" from overseas leadership, which the group has traditionally used to navigate relations with foreign allies. Sinwar's appointment "puts Gaza front and centre", Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst, told Al Jazeera. "And it really sends a signal, as far as negotiations of a ceasefire is concerned, that Gaza calls the shots."

What does his selection mean for Gaza?

His selection, "seen as a victory for hardliners", will "further complicate" the war, said Sky News. His appointment will "likely go down badly with Qatar", where some exiled Hamas officials are based – and which is mediating the ceasefire negotiations.

Sinwar "has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the ceasefire", said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

But the difference now is that there is no longer the "comparatively pragmatic voice" of Haniyeh to "balance Sinwar's uncompromising maximalist views", said CNBC. On a practical level, reaching Sinwar in Gaza has sometimes taken days. He often "stalls or cuts off communications during the talks". It is unclear how he will take on Haniyeh's diplomatic duties abroad.

The merging of the military and political wings of Hamas also complicates plans for a "day after" in Gaza, or a future Palestinian government.

But Israeli and US intelligence officers believe that Sinwar's strategy is to "keep the war in Gaza going for as long as it takes to shred Israel's international reputation", said The New York Times. Sinwar is "seen as less ready to concede ground to the Israeli negotiators". He knows he is "likely to be killed whether or not the war ends".

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

Israel's hunt for Hamas's elusive new chief Sinwar

Since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, Yahya Sinwar has been at the top of Israel's most wanted list, but the newly appointed chief of the Palestinian group has remained elusive as ever.

Israeli commanders believe Sinwar, 61, is hiding in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas has built under the Gaza Strip over the years.

In December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army had surrounded Sinwar's house, but since then there has been little to no information on his whereabouts.

"There are many unanswered questions," said Michael Milstein, an Israeli analyst and former adviser to the defence ministry.

"I am quite sure that there are lots of places that he can hide in, and he has a lot of men around him that are really loyal to him and support him," he added.

Images of Sinwar were rare even before the October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

During the attack, Hamas militants seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has since killed at least 39,699 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

Sinwar has not been seen in public since the attack.

But in February, the Israeli military released grainy footage of a man it said was Sinwar walking through a tunnel on October 10, three days after the deadly attack on Israel.

The black and white CCTV footage was found during a military operation. AFP was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

- 'Hideout to hideout ' -

The video was the "result of our hunt", Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing at the time.

"The hunt will not stop until he is captured, dead or alive. We are determined to capture him."

It was not the video that was important, Hagari said, but the intelligence the military could glean from it that would help find other top militants.

Days later, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed that Sinwar was "on the run" and moving from "hideout to hideout".

Earlier this month, the military announced that in July it had killed Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's armed wing and, along with Sinwar, one of the alleged planners of the October 7 attack.

In recent days, there have been rumours that Sinwar has been meeting with hostages still being held in Gaza.

When a week-long ceasefire was concluded at the end of November, and dozens of hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, one of the released captives claimed to have seen Sinwar.

But after questioning Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, the security services concluded that it was not Sinwar she had seen, her son told Israeli television Channel 13.

"Using complex means, he communicates with all the leadership of the movement both inside (Gaza) and outside, and also with the (Ezzedine) al-Qassam Brigades," a senior Hamas leader told AFP, referring to the group's armed wing.

"He follows complex security procedures for his personal protection, but this does not prevent him from continuing his duties and making decisions," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

Sinwar will speak soon about his appointment as Hamas chief, he added.

- Speculation -

Meanwhile, his absence is fuelling ample speculation over his location.

Some claim to have seen him walking the streets of Gaza to celebrate his new appointment or meeting with Palestinian families displaced by the war, but there has been no confirmation.

The Israeli media have also reported anecdotes and aspects of his personality from many who spent time with him in Israeli jails, where he was imprisoned for 23 years.

Diplomats, journalists and commentators often speculate on how the Hamas supremo might be communicating with other officials of the movement outside of Gaza, given that he is involved in indirect negotiations with Israel for a ceasefire and that his responses take several days to reach them.

"I won't be surprised if he is surrounded by hostages as a shield," Milstein said.

"He does understand that if he is protected by hostages, it will be more difficult for Israel to attack him."

Milstein said Sinwar has many people who respect him, while others fear him.

"He must be receiving help from Gazans who either fear him or adhere to Hamas's ideology."

While some claim he has left Gaza, most experts on Hamas reject that idea.

"He is not afraid to die... A commander does not leave his warriors behind," said Guy Aviad, an Israeli military historian.

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT