Two Hamas officers advised the BBC discussions to decide on a successor for the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, whose killing was confirmed on Thursday, will start very quickly.
The officers mentioned that Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy and the group’s most senior official outdoors Gaza, is taken into account a robust candidate.
Al-Hayya, who is predicated in Qatar, at present leads the Hamas delegation in ceasefire talks between the group and Israel, and possesses a deep information, connection and understanding of the scenario in Gaza.
On Monday, a Hamas official advised the BBC that the motion is more likely to preserve the id of its new chief secret for safety causes.
The motion did the identical factor in 2003 following the assassination of then Hamas chief, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, by Israel and that of his successor, Dr Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
Hamas intends to elect a brand new chief in March of subsequent 12 months however till then it will likely be run by a five-member committee.
The committee will likely be made up of Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Meshaal, Zaher Jabarin, Muhammad Darwish, head of the Shura Council, and a fifth particular person whose id stays undisclosed.
The official indicated that Khalil al-Hayya has assumed accountability for many political and overseas affairs along with his direct oversight of Gaza-related issues and is successfully the performing head of the motion.
The official added that Hamas had been stunned by the way in which Yahya Sinwar had been killed last week as their understanding had been that he was in a way more safe location on the time of his assassination.
Sinwar’s dying got here simply two months after the killing of former leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
A senior Hamas official had described Sinwar because the architect of the 7 October assaults, emphasising that his appointment was supposed as a daring message of defiance towards Israel.
Since July, ceasefire negotiations have stalled, and plenty of consider that Sinwar’s management was a big impediment to any ceasefire deal.
Regardless of the killing of Sinwar, a senior Hamas official reiterated to the BBC that the motion’s situations for accepting a ceasefire and the discharge of Israeli hostages haven’t modified.
Hamas continues to demand a whole Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an finish to hostilities, the switch of humanitarian support, and the reconstruction of the war-torn territory – situations that Israel has categorically rejected, insisting that Hamas should give up.
When questioned about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s name for Hamas to surrender its weapons and give up, officers from the motion responded: “It’s unattainable for us to give up.
“We’re preventing for the liberty of our individuals, and we is not going to settle for give up. We are going to battle till the final bullet and the final soldier, simply as Sinwar did.”
The assassination of Sinwar was one of the important losses for the organisation in many years. Nevertheless, regardless of the challenges of changing him, Hamas has a historical past of tolerating management losses because the Nineteen Nineties.
Whereas Israel has succeeded in killing most of Hamas’s leaders and founders, the motion has confirmed resilient in its capability to seek out new ones.
Amid this disaster, questions linger concerning the destiny of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and who will likely be liable for their security and safety. On Monday the Hamas official advised the BBC that the group nonetheless had the flexibility to carry the hostages.
On this context, Mohammed Sinwar, Yahya Sinwar’s brother, has emerged as a pivotal determine. He’s believed to be main the remaining armed teams of Hamas and should play an important function in shaping the way forward for the motion in Gaza.