Behind the scenes as Hamas chose its new leader

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 Center East after virtually a 12 months of preventing 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 an important function in Hamas, balancing the militant wing’s want to take the combat to Israel with calls from some to succeed in a settlement and finish the battle.

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

On the mourning ceremony in Doha, Hamas leaders lined up shoulder to shoulder in an enormous white tent with carpets and fancy chairs, embellished with footage of Ismail Haniyeh. Lots of 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 top 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 surprising funeral. Again in 2004 I witnessed them meet after Israel assassinated the group’s founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – the assembly happening in his home in Gaza. Lower than a month later, Israel killed his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.

However 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 12 months, 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. Greater than half the buildings in Gaza have been broken or destroyed and virtually your entire inhabitants has been displaced. Dissent in opposition to 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 shopping on his cellphone. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have mentioned a projectile with a 7kg warhead was used. Some Western media stories say he was killed by a bomb planted within the room beforehand.

Again 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 shut consideration to him,” a Hamas media officer informed me. Who was he? “He’s the shadowy man, Abu Omar Hassan,” he mentioned.

Abu Omar Hassan, or Mohamed Hassan Darwish, is the top of the Supreme Shura Council, the highest consultative physique in Hamas. In line with 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’s the person of the large missions,” I used to be informed.

Because the mourning ceremony ended, these leaders’ actual work started. For 2 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 could come as a shock to many, however anybody following his profession since Israel launched him within the 2011 alternate deal for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit knew he was at all times prone to lead Hamas someday.

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 mentioned 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.

Regardless of all this, many might even see appointing him to a very powerful place in Hamas as insanity. Israel’s safety companies imagine Sinwar deliberate and executed the assault on southern Israel, and he’s prime of their needed record.

“Not all the individuals inside Hamas management had been in favour of the choice,” a senior Hamas official informed me. “Some leaders raised their considerations, others pushed for a extra reasonable individual. However ultimately he received the vast majority of the votes.”

One other Hamas official who attended the conferences mentioned 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 develop into a trademark after 7 October and he has nice reputation within the Arab and Islamic worlds,” the official mentioned. “He enjoys shut relations with the axis of resistance supported by Iran, and his appointment within the midst of the conflict sends a message of defiance to Israel.”

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

Many Arab and a few Western officers urged Hamas in opposition to 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 many explanation why we voted for him is as a result of we wish to honour him for masterminding the assaults” the official mentioned. “October seventh belongs to him so he deserves to steer the motion.”

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

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

The Philadelphi Hall is a buffer zone, solely about 100m (330ft) large in components, which runs alongside the Gaza facet 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 informed me in Doha: “Egyptian intelligence has already despatched a workforce to Doha and there are conferences to formulate an motion plan primarily based on sparing the area a attainable Iranian response… in alternate for a ceasefire.”

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