Hamas faces leadership vacuum with demise of Gaza 'War Council'
With the confirmed killing of Hamas's top military commander Mohammad Sinwar in an Israeli strike, a chapter has closed on the elite leadership group in Gaza that orchestrated the events of 7 October, 2023.Sinwar's demise follows the confirmed killings of other central figures who sat on what came to be known inside Hamas as the War Council.Sinwar, his brother Yahya, Marwan Issa and a fifth unidentified figure formed the clandestine core that decided on and directed the unprecedented assault on Israel - one which shook the region and set off the conflict still unfolding in Gaza.The War Council, sometimes also known as the Quintet Council, operated under conditions of extreme security and secrecy.Direct meetings between its members were exceedingly rare. Instead, communication occurred through older technology deemed more secure, like cable phones, or via trusted intermediaries, all in an effort to minimise the risk of interception or detection.This level of secrecy was not just tactical: it reflected the council's critical role in Hamas's strategic decision-making, especially in preparation for what became the most complex and deadly attack in the organisation's history.
The known members of the council included:Mohammed Deif - the commander of Hamas's military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, who is believed to have masterminded the 7 October attack. He was killed in an Israeli air strike in July 2024Yahya Sinwar - the political leader of Hamas in Gaza and its most influential decision-maker in recent years. He was killed in a firefight with Israeli troops in October 2024Mohammad Sinwar - a senior military figure and Deif's trusted lieutenant. Israel said this week that it had identified his body in Gaza following an air strike in MayMarwan Issa - Deif's deputy and a vital link between Hamas's military and political spheres. He was killed in an Israeli air strike in March 2024A fifth figure - whose identity remains unknown to the public - who was in charge of organising Hamas's security apparatus. He was targeted in assassination attempts before the war and an air strike during it, and suffered such severe injuries that he can no longer communicate or carry out any activities, according to one source
The 7 October attack marked a seismic shift in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The scale and brutality of the attack stunned observers worldwide - not just for its immediate impact, but for its unprecedented scale.Hamas's military preparations took years - including extensive tunnel construction and the steady accumulation of rockets and weapons - but few analysts, regional actors, or even rival Palestinian factions foresaw the magnitude of the offensive.The group had long maintained strict control over Gazans and had often imposed harsh economic measures, including heavy taxes, on an already impoverished population to fund its military build-up.Yet even within the movement, there appears to have been a limited understanding of the scale and consequences of the plan hatched by the War Council.
Its demise raises a profound question: what exactly drove its members to pursue a course that many Palestinians have described as politically suicidal?With Israel's overwhelming military response and the international isolation that followed, the 7 October attack has increasingly been viewed as a desperate gamble - one that lacked a clear political exit strategy and led to massive suffering for Gaza's civilian population.Now, with most of the core decision-makers dead, uncovering the deeper motivations and strategic calculus behind the attack may no longer be possible.What internal debates occurred within the council? Were there dissenting voices? Was this a bid for regional relevance, a provocation timed with regional shifts, or a last-ditch effort to break a long-standing siege?Answers to these questions may have died with the men who conceived the plan.The dismantling of the war council leaves Hamas facing a potential leadership vacuum at a critical time.Its military capabilities have been severely degraded, its political leadership - who operated out of Qatar until November 2024, after which their whereabouts became unclear - is under intense pressure, and its traditional mechanisms of control within Gaza have been deeply disrupted.
The absence of a centralised strategic command may lead to fragmentation within Hamas, or the rise of new, perhaps more radical factions.Alternatively, it may open a pathway for recalibration - if not by Hamas, then by other Palestinian actors seeking to fill the void left behind.The fall of Hamas's War Council marks the end of a shadowy but powerful inner circle that shaped one of the most consequential decisions in the movement's history.Whether their legacy will be seen by Palestinians as one of bold resistance or catastrophic miscalculation, one thing is certain: with their departure, a defining era in the leadership of Hamas has come to a close.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
16 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Shelter in place ordered for Americans in Qatar amid growing fears of Iran retaliation
The US Embassy in Qatar has ordered Americans in the nation to 'shelter in place' as fears grow of an Iranian retaliation to the US strikes on Saturday night. The Embassy warned Americans to seek shelter 'out of an abundance of caution.' It did not say how long the shelter in place order is expected to last. There are up to 15,000 American residents in Qatar, and the United States also has 19 military facilities in the Middle East nation. Qatar has served as an intermediary between the United States and Iran in the past and was coordinating negotiations over Iran's nuclear resources earlier this month before Israel ended the talks by attacking Iran on June 13. This is a developing story, check back for updates.
Daily Mail
16 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Iranian-Americans' praise Trump for bombing of their home nation
Iranian-Americans have backed President Trump's strikes on their home nation as they hope the intervention could trigger a revolt against the Ayatollah's regime. In Maryland, one of the largest Iranian communities in America where over 16,000 Iranian people live, residents have expressed a cautious optimism over the strikes. An Iranian-American DC resident called Alireza, who declined to give his second name, told the outlet that the news of Trump's 'bunker buster' bomb raid on three key Iranian nuclear weapon factories on Saturday night filled him with hope. He said world leaders in the past had ignored the oppression of the Iranian people at the hands of the regime, but after Trump's strikes, 'it shows that they can't do anything and they are weak.' Hashemi said that Iranian political identity has been 'deeply shaped by the fact that Iran has been on the receiving end and the humiliating end of external intervention.' '(This) created the social conditions for the 1979 revolution', he said, when the country's liberal shah was replaced by a hardline Islamic regime that remains in power to this day. Israel began bombing Iran last week in a bid to stop the country building nuclear weapons, after its leaders vowed to use them to obliterate Israel. On Saturday night, Trump dispatched B-2 bombers with huge 'bunker buster' bombs to try and destroy three nuclear weapons factories, including the infamous Fordow facility that sits buried under a mountain. Alireza and others hope that Trump's strikes will finally topple the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Pushing for regime change in Iran has long been avoided by US presidents, before Donald Trump on Sunday night stunned the Middle East again as he called to 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.' In a shock post on Sunday night to Truth Social, Trump wrote: 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' The message from the president directly contradicted remarks from his top allies just hours earlier, with Vice President JD Vance telling ABC: 'We don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program.' A majority of Republicans support America's entry into the war - but there has been vocal criticism too, from leading MAGA figures including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Steve Bannon. However, direct American intervention to end to the Ayatollah's regime is exactly what many Iranians in America are hoping for. Reza Rofougaran, a 72-year-old real estate broker in Maryland, told the Baltimore Sun that he emigrated from Tehran shortly after the 1979 revolution, and worked as a journalist in his home country before the regime censored his newspaper. After being randomly arrested on the street, he said he 'decided that no matter what, I'm going to leave the country and come back to the U.S.' He said he is '100 percent against the Islamic regime in Iran and hope for a regime change.' Rofougaran, a US citizen since 1997, added that he was unsure if American intervention would have the desired effect given past foreign policy struggles in the Middle East, and would 'prefer this regime goes down by the people of Iran themselves.' 'A good majority of Iranians' oppose the regime, he said, but at the same time they 'are saddened by these attacks.' 'I am not happy with any attack on my homeland,' he said. The divide between the desired outcome of regime change and skepticism over how to achieve it follows decades of US presidents floating strikes on Iran but backing down due to the risks involved, before Trump pulled the trigger on Saturday night. 'Unfortunately, no one helped us. Obama didn't help us. Biden didn't help us,' Rofougaran added. 'The current situation, actually, I'm sort of happy, that actually, Israelis start supporting Iranian people.' A National Iranian American Council survey of Iranian Americans shortly before Israel's strikes on Iran found that 53 percent strongly or somewhat opposed US military action. The number that strongly or somewhat supported American intervention stood at 36 percent. Trump's strikes did not target or kill any civilians in Iran. Experts say many Iranian-Americans fled to the US to escape persecution, with that life experience explaining their support for potential regime change. 'Many Iranian Americans are here fled the regime because of either economic deprivation or political persecution,' Nader Hashemi, the director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University, told the Baltimore Sun. Rofougaran said Iranians he has spoken to both in the US and his home country say they are 'happy' with the Israeli strikes 'because of the precise attack' that only killed or injured soldiers and no civilians. 'You are not attacking civilians, people. They are attacking the mullahs, the top [IRGC] commanders and the people in charge,' he said. Now, with the world waiting for Iran's response to the US strikes, he hopes the Iranian people will see the bombings as an opportunity to push for regime change. 'The whole thing is changing in 10 days,' he said. 'They want to have a peaceful government.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
A protest in Venice and galaxies in space: photos of the day
A Palestinian man mourns as others transport bodies of people killed in strikes on Jabalia a day earlier, at al-Shifa hospital Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images A Palestinian girl reacts as people queue at a food distribution point. The Israeli blockade imposed in early March amid an impasse in truce negotiations has produced famine-like conditions across Gaza, according to rights groups Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images Members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society place flowers and petals on a Red Crescent vehicle that was attacked during an Israeli airstrike on 19 June in Tehran. Israel and Iran have been exchanging fire since Israel launched strikes across Iran on 13 June as part of Operation 'Rising Lion' Photograph: EPA Debris at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian drone and missile strikes Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters People take shelter in a metro station during a Russian drone and missile attack Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters Firefighters tackle a blaze at a multifamily home in the Bronx, which spread to two adjacent properties. Fourteen people were hospitalized including one firefighter, who remains in critical condition Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Mahmoud Khalil in front of Columbia University after delivering a press conference two days after his release from custody. Khalil, one of the most prominent leaders of US pro-Palestinian campus protests, pledged to keep campaigning. A legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, Khalil had been in custody since March facing potential deportation Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images Members of the public walk past the exterior of Invesco's offices after they are left covered with red paint following an action by Palestine Action. The activists accuse Invesco of supporting what they say is a Palestinian genocide in Gaza by investing in companies that supply arms to Israel. Members of the campaign group have called an emergency demonstration as Yvette Cooper reportedly prepares to proscribe the group, which would make it unlawful to join the organization Photograph:A bereaved person prays in front of the Cornerstone of Peace at the Peace Memorial Park in Okinawa prefecture, as Japan marked the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa Photograph: Haruna Furuhashi/AP A large banner against Jeff Bezos is placed by Greenpeace Italy activists along with others in St Mark's Square, in advance of the expected wedding of the Amazon founder and Lauren Sánchez Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters A small section of NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies (lower right), three merging galaxies (upper right), several groups of distant galaxies, many stars in the Milky Way and more Photograph: NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin Observatory/AFP/Getty Images Enrique Vega sits on his horse with his daughters Valentina and Carolina as his wife, Juliana, holds an American flag at the Human Rights Unity Ride, protesting the controversial ongoing federal immigration raids in Los Angeles county, California Photograph:Kraftwerk perform during Forever Now festival at the National Bowl Photograph:Spencer Duarte (in yellow) being tackled by members of the public after snatching a phone. Spencer, 28, of Saffron Walden, admitted one count of theft at Inner London crown court Photograph: City of London Police/PA The Herds, in which life-size animal puppets fleeing climate breakdown have visited cities on a 20,000km (12,400-mile) trip from Africa to the Arctic Circle, arrives in the French capital, with 100 puppeteers giving life to 40 animals. Their journey ends in Trondheim on 30 July Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
