Minister sees fresh Gaza conflict after Hamas anoints ‘unpredictable’ leader

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said Tuesday that a fresh conflict with Gaza is simply a matter of time, after terror group Hamas picked a hardliner convicted of murder to lead the Palestinian enclave.

Following the election of Yahya Sinwar as head of the Hamas terrorist group in the coastal enclave, the prospect of war is even greater, Steinitz told Israel Radio.

Although Israel has no intention of fanning the flames, Sinwar’s impulsiveness and cruelty increase the risk of a fourth war with Gaza, he said.

The comments from Steinitz, who is filling in as head of government while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits US President Donald Trump, come a week after other ministers also predicted war with Gaza following a day that saw several exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Strip.

The election was announced by officials in the Strip Monday.

Sinwar, 55, is considered one of Hamas’s most ruthless leaders. He generally avoids the limelight, but is seen as an unpredictable hardliner who inspires the loyalty of Hamas’s military wing’s leadership.

The appointment of Sinwar, who was freed by Israel in a 2011 prisoner swap after two decades behind bars, solidifies the takeover of Gaza operations by the armed wing of the group from civilian leaders. The military wing, which controls thousands of fighters and a vast arsenal of rockets, has battled Israel in three wars since Hamas seized Gaza a decade ago.

Israel last fought in Gaza in 2014, the third war with Palestinian fighters in the territory in six years.

Steinitz rejected the idea that Sinwar could be more hardline than former leader Ismail Haniyeh, but said he was worried over the new leader’s impulsiveness.

“As his power grows the chance [of war, even due to] a miscalculation, increases, because of his hysterical reactions and jihadist fantasies,” he said.

Likud MK Avi Dichter, the head of the Knesset Defense Committee and a former head of the Shin Bet security service, expressed regrets Israel had not assassinated Sinwar instead of freeing him in a prisoner swap.

Speaking to Israel Radio, he added that Sinwar’s election does not protect him as a potential target for assassination.

Sinwar, who is in his mid-50s, comes from the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and was a founder of Hamas’s military wing in the 1980s.

Hamas is sworn to Israel’s destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks. It is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Sinwar was sentenced to four life terms by Israel in 1988 for a series of offenses, including his role as mastermind of the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers. During his final years in prison, he was the leader of the hundreds of Hamas prisoners held by Israel.

In 2011, Netanyahu agreed to release Sinwar, along with about 1,000 other prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been captured by Hamas five years earlier in a cross-border raid.

At the time, Netanyahu was harshly criticized for releasing dozens of prisoners held for involvement in deadly attacks. Israel says Sinwar’s brother, Mohammed, was among the masterminds of the soldier’s capture and negotiated the prisoner swap.

Sinwar, who rejects any reconciliation with Israel, has quickly restored his power in the movement since his return to Gaza. He is widely believed to be behind last year’s unprecedented killing of another top Hamas commander in an internal power struggle.