Khaled Mashal Is Reported To Be A Temporary Leader Of Hamas, There Are Five Figures Who Can Replace Yahya Sinwar

Hamas official Khaled Meshaal. (Wikimedia Commons/Trango)

JAKARTA - Senior Hamas official Khaled Mashal has reportedly been the interim leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, following news of Yahya Sinwar's death from an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, with observers saying there are five figures who have the potential to become the next Hamas leader.

Sources indicated that Mashal would act as interim leader, overseeing communications with key stakeholders involved in negotiations on the release of Israeli hostages, as quoted by Lebanese LBCI's News.AZ, Friday, October 18.

Sinwar's death, if confirmed, is feared to make ceasefire negotiations in Gaza and prisoner swaps increasingly difficult, with Hamas reportedly having established communications with Turkish, Qatar and Egyptian officials.

Meanwhile, Middle Eastern observer Faisal Assegaf said Hamas is expected to continue its fight against Israeli occupation of Palestine.

"Hamas does not depend on one leader because they already have an election mechanism if a leader is killed," he told VOI.

Regarding the replacement figure for Sinwar, he mentioned that there are five figures who have the potential to replace him, including Mashal.

"There are four names, Muhammad Sinwar (now the number 2 person in the Izzudin al-Qassam Brigade). He is Yahya Sinwar's brother," he explained.

"Then there is Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of the Hamas Political Bureau for the Gaza Strip. Then there is Musa Abu Marzuq and Mashal, both of whom were heads of the Hamas Political Bureau," he continued.

"But there could be a fifth person. His name is Mahmud Zahar, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza," added Faisal Assegaf.

As previously reported, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Yahya Sinwar was killed in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

"After completing the process of identifying the bodies, it can be ascertained that Yahya Sinwar has been killed," the IDF said.

The killings took place during a land operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where Israeli forces killed three militants and retrieved their bodies, Israeli Army Radio said.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Israel's pursuit of Sinwar over the past year had prompted him "to act like a fugitive, causing him to move locations several times."

He said the army had visited Sinwar during routine operations without knowing its whereabouts, unlike other operations against militant leaders based on comprehensive intelligence.

IDF spokesman Laksda Daniel Badminton said Thursday's press conference that Yahya Sinwar tried to flee to the north when he was killed in an Israeli attack.

"I believe he ran, moving from the underground complex to the houses while trying to escape north to a safer complex," mitigating IDF forces continued to operate in the compound in Tal al Sultan in Rafah, where Sinwar was killed, without knowing at the time that the old man was there.

"We continue to operate to check whether terrorists did not flee this area," said Laksda koli.

Israeli forces found Sinwar with vests, weapons, and 40,000 shields (Rp166,006,678), an IDF spokesman said.

He added that he said Sinwar's DNA was found in a tunnel a few hundred meters from where the six hostages were killed earlier this year.

Yahya Sinwar, who spent half of his adult life in Israeli prisons, was the most senior Hamas leader after the death of Ismail Haniyeh as a result of an attack allegedly carried out by Israel in Tehran, Iran on 31 July. Sinwar was later chosen to be his successor last August.