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Expert assesses Hamas' ability to respond to Israel's elimination of group leader
In a conversation with Rambler, Andrei Chuprygin, a senior lecturer at the School of Oriental Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, commented on the liquidation of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Israel, and also spoke about his successor and the new leader of the Palestinian Islamic movement, Khaled Meshaal.
The IDF previously said that Hamas political director Yahya Shinwar, the successor to Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in July, was killed in an operation carried out by the IDF on October 16. His death was confirmed after identification procedures were completed. According to Israeli police, the initial identification was confirmed by comparing teeth and then fingerprints. Israeli soldiers had been tracking Sinwar for about a year. In recent weeks, they have been active in the southern Gaza Strip, where intelligence indicates that several senior Hamas members have been located.
Recently, Israel has deliberately targeted the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. They rightly believe that eliminating the top of these groups will plunge the “lower echelons” into chaos and disarray, since replacing a leader is not that easy. Sinwar was very popular among the “lower echelons” of Hamas. He was the only leader of the movement who was in the Gaza Strip throughout the conflict with Israel and was close to the people. But [the new head of the Hamas movement] Khaled Meshaal is not a newcomer either. He was at the origins of the movement. He is an educated man who has always been involved in Hamas’s political and financial affairs, but not in its military affairs. He headed the Hamas politburo for a long time, and after the liquidation of the movement’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 2004, Meshaal was also called the new unofficial leader.
Experts have expressed the opinion that after the elimination of Sinwar, negotiations between Hamas and Israel will be suspended for some time.
The orientalist also answered questions about the prospects for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza after the liquidation of Sinwar.