Students in Sanaa Rally for New Hamas Leader

Hundreds of students demonstrated at Sanaa University to show support for the appointment of Yahya Sinwar as leader of Hamas and solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

University officials and professors joined the students in their protest at campus.

"We are here in support of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people who have suffered more than any other people, killed, displaced and terrorized by America and Israel", said Deputy Rector of Sanaa University, Ibrahim Al-Mutaa during the demonstration.

Hamas named its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar as successor to former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week, the group said, in a move that reinforces the radical path pursued since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Sinwar, the architect of the most devastating attack on Israel in decades, has been hiding in Gaza, defying Israeli attempts to kill him since the start of the war.

Israelis railed against new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, with some hoping he will meet the same fate as his predecessor who was killed last week.

Near Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square, whose circular fountain is ringed with tributes to Israel’s Gaza hostages and war dead, Sinwar’s appointment was met with disquiet.

The Palestinian movement’s Gaza chief, an alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack, was named as the movement’s head late after Ismail Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran.

The shadowy Sinwar, who has not been seen since October 7, has emerged as the Palestinian group’s leader 10 months into the Israel-Hamas war.

His rise comes at a time of sky-high tensions, after Haniyeh’s death and Israel’s killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon raised fears of a coordinated response by Iran and its proxies.