Israel Awaits Iran’s Response, Hamas Appoints Sinwar as Haniyeh’s Successor – Middle East

Hours of high tension in the Middle East due to rumors of impending attacks by Iran in response to Israel for deposing the head of the Hamas leadership.

As part of the Pentagon’s efforts to protect Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its allies and to protect US troops, twelve F/A-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt headed to a military base in the Middle East. . This was said by a US official – according to what the AP reports on its website – specifying that the fighters and the Hawkeye E-2D surveillance plane took off from the aircraft carrier in Gulf of Oman and that they arrived at the undisclosed location last Monday. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered an increased military presence in the region as officials worry about increasing violence in the Middle East.

“It is up to Hamas leader Sinwar to decide on the peace in Gaza,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while speaking to reporters in Annapolis, Maryland. Iran must and Israel to “avoid an escalation of conflict” in the Middle East, he said. “We will not tolerate attacks against US troops in the Middle East,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said.

“The appointment of the ultra-terrorist Yahya Sinwar as the new leader of Hamas, in place of Ismail Haniyeh, is another legitimate reason for the swift elimination and banishment of this vicious group from the face of the earth.” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz writes this on X.

Yahya Sinwar was named the political leader of Hamas and therefore the successor of Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed six days ago in Tehran in a guest house in Pasdaran. An assassination that has unleashed Tehran’s desire for revenge, which is expected in the next few hours. “The anti-Islamic movement Hamas announces the appointment of its leader Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement’s political bureau.”
And again: “A strong message of resistance” sent to Israel ten months after the start of the war in Gaza. “A strong message to the resident that Hamas continues on the path of resistance,” said an official from the Palestinian organization.
A decision that turns the cards and shows that he is in charge of Hamas, “the terrorist to the heart, the creator of the massacre of October 7”, Yahya Sinwar. Who now, according to analysts, after the death of Haniyeh has “free hands” to decide for himself how to continue the fight against Israel, managing the negotiations – stopped now – for peace and release. Hidden inside the tunnels of Gaza for ten months, Sinwar showed all his power to the world tonight. Sweeping away with the official note of the political leader in pectore, apparently gained fame only by Doha and Tehran, Muhammad Ismail Darwish, the head of the Shura Council and the real “head of the economic and financial empire of Hamas”. The shadowy figure that for years has been driving money transfers from Iran to Islamic militias and in investments around the world was liquidated within a few hours. The communication between him and Darwish – Israeli analysts emphasized this morning – “is not so fluid and current”. The appointment of a Hamas financier as political leader, which was widely announced by the Arab media today and accepted as established, was certainly not popular in the tunnels of the Struggle. And Sinwar has now completely taken over Hamas.
The prediction came a few days ago from Middle East expert Michael Milshtein: “With the death of Haniyeh, Sinwar is the man who really commands in the Strip. he suffered in prison like him and they do not understand that the vision is jihad, not political projects”, he said. For the analyst, when Haniyeh died, Sinwar did not ” toast, but his killing certainly created a more comfortable operating space”.
Indeed, now there is no one left on the road of Sinwar.
There is no political leader from Doha, who travels between Arab capitals and weaves political fields that disturb the sleep of Gaza.
Sinwar was left alone. Even personally, because the men closest to him were killed by Israel. First he killed his lifelong friend, the very trusted Muhammad Deif, in a building in the south end of the Street on July 13. He is also a terrorist at heart, and an evil architect in planning the attack on Israel on October 7. Now everything is in Sinwar’s blood stained hands.
Betty Lahat, who was the director of the prison where he was detained in Israel, says that he was a man who was as reckless as a cat, but also how fragile and stupid he was when he was told he had head cancer, which was successfully treated by Israeli doctors. . And the Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari, who interviewed him when he was in prison, calls him a “clever and sophisticated psychopath”. While Michael Koubi, a Shin Beth officer who interrogated him for hours while he was in prison, remembers him as “hard and emotionless, with the eyes of a killer”.
Sinwar was freed in the exchange between a thousand Palestinian prisoners and the soldier Gilad Shalit who was held for 5 and a half years in the tunnels, with a decision made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For the IDF “there is only one place for Sinwar. And it is next to Deif”.

A week after the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh in Tehran, the international community is still waiting with bated breath for Iran’s revenge against Israel. The regime of the ayatollahs has already told foreign ambassadors that they intend to strike the Jewish state and they have started a movement of preparation, moving missile launchers, but at the same time it seems that it still has to take time, as suggested by the meeting call. with the Arab countries. For Hassan Nasrallah this is a detailed strategy: “Waiting is part of the punishment”, he warned the leader of Hezbollah, promising an attack with the entire Shiite axis, including the Houthis. A call ahead to Israeli fighters flying over Beirut, at low altitude, as an act of defiance. After another day of exchange of fire​​​​ between the IDF and the Lebanese militias, which also deployed Shahed drones.
In Iran, in addition to the calls of the political leaders, the military also took action to prepare revenge for the death of the Hamas leader. The Americans have seen rocket launch sites moved and scheduled drills since the weekend.
In addition, the head of the Air Forces of the Iranian Army Ali Reza Sabahifard announced the opening of “a modern center for electronic warfare in the eastern part of the country.”
The arsenal of Shiite power was then enriched by the arrival of advanced air defense and radar equipment, ammunition and Iskander ballistic missiles from Russia, which damaged the infrastructure of Ukraine.
Diplomatic signals suggest that the attack will not happen in the next few hours. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, based in Jeddah, has indeed announced that it will meet on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran” to discuss developments in the region. However, the Ayatollah’s main ally, Nasrallah, kept the alarm high for Israel. “Hezbollah will respond, Iran will respond, Yemen will respond, and the enemy will wait, watch and evaluate each response.
The main thing is that there is determination and ability”, stressed the leader of the Party of God during praise for the killing of the man on the right, the leader Fuad Shukr. And in the spirit of “a battle that is also psychological” with the normal enemy, he said: “Our response will come alone or as part of a general response with the entire front”, the axis known as Iraqi militias, for example, that they hit on Monday night on the American. Base Al -Asad with two missiles, causing several injuries among US personnel and the chief on October 7, Israel’s number one wanted man.
In Washington the idea of ​​a coordinated attack is being taken seriously. According to Axios, the information gave Joe Biden and Kamala Harris a two-wave situation, one from Hezbollah and one from Iran and several of its other affiliates in the region. Although reported, Israel’s enemies have not yet decided how to act.
In the Jewish state the alert is still very high. In the Golan, local authorities have asked residents to stay near shelters and reduce travel. After Hezbollah launched a swarm of drones and a barrage of rockets towards the disputed heights and the Galilee, causing warning sirens to sound several times.
With the Iranian attack now looking like a question of when, not if, prime chancellors will move with regional partners to avoid the worst. Biden assured that the US is “ready to defend Israel”, but his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, clarified that “we are committed 24 hours a day to ask all parties to stop escalating”. Rome is also very active. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke with King Abdallah of Jordan, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with his colleague from Amman and his Egyptian counterpart. Vladimir Putin also moved to prevent open warfare. The Russian president, while continuing to arm the Iranians, sent a message to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei launching an appeal to free the citizens of Israel.