The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has appointed Yahya Sinwar as the new political leader of the resistance movement after Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.

In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas announced “the selection of Commander Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement’s political bureau, succeeding the martyred leader Ismail Haniyeh, may Allah have mercy on him.”

Haniyeh was assassinated in an attack on his residence in the early hours of July 31, in the Iranian capital Tehran, where he had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly-elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, a day earlier.

He was the second high-profile Hamas leader to be assassinated by Israel since Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023, after Salah al-Arouri’s assassination in southern Beirut on January 2.

Sinwar, a high-ranking Hamas military commander, became the leader of Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip in February 2017, taking over from Haniyeh.

He was a key architect of the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm that Hamas launched against the occupying regime in response to its decades-long campaign of oppression and devastation against Palestinians.

Sinwar, 61, is also among the top Hamas targets sought by the Israeli regime, which has put a $400,000 bounty on his head following the October 7 operation.