After Leadership Change, Hamas Intensifies... Resumes 'Suicide Bombing Terror'

The Palestinian armed faction Hamas, which recently changed its leader, has resumed suicide bombing attacks?considered extreme acts of terrorism?after more than 20 years.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 8th (local time) that after Yahya Sinwar was elected as the top political leader, Hamas chose a more radical line of struggle. Sinwar is the architect of the terrorist operation that ambushed Israel on October 7 last year, killing over 1,200 people and abducting more than 250. He was elected as the new leader in July after Hamas’s previous top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran, the capital of Iran.

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According to Arab intelligence officials, since then Sinwar has issued orders to resume suicide bombing attacks against Israel. Hamas carried out suicide bombings until the early 2000s but stopped due to concerns that it negatively affected international public opinion and could lead to political ostracism within Palestine. Although there were considerable concerns within Hamas about the order to resume suicide bombings, it is reported that no one dared to oppose Sinwar.

Sinwar is a core figure among the radical faction within Hamas who believes that civilian casualties are inevitable to inflict damage on Israel. He opposed the previous Hamas leadership’s negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza war with Israel, and it is known that former Hamas leaders like Haniyeh were dissatisfied with Sinwar’s radical line of struggle.

Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S. think tank, predicted, "Hamas under Sinwar’s leadership will show a more radical fundamentalist tendency in the future."