Hamas military hardliner elected group’s Gaza Strip chief
Gaza City — Hamas elected in secret a hardline member of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s armed wing as its new Gaza leader on Monday, indicating a tougher stand against longtime adversary Israel. Yahya Sinwar was elected to head the Hamas political office in the Gaza Strip, officials from the party said on condition of anonymity. An influential military figure, Sinwar represents for some the hardest line within Hamas which has fought three wars against Israel since 2008. He will succeed politician Ismail Haniyeh and becomes the second most important figure in the party after Khaled Meshaal. Sinwar was held in Israeli jail for more than 20 years until 2011, when he was released along with more than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured five years earlier. He has since become a senior figure in the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. In September 2015, Sinwar’s name was added to the US terrorism blacklist alongs...
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