[23] And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: [24] But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. [25] Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.Acts 9 : 23-25
Didier Lauras with Adel Zaanoun in Cairo
Thu, April 10, 2025 at 5:27 AM GMT+34 min read
After Israel killed a string of its leaders, Hamas anointed new commanders to top ranks, this time shrouding their identities in secrecy to protect them from assassination.
Fire Chief Weeks, who had directed the fighting of a number of big fires in Battle Creek, was later to declare that he had fought every one of the Adventist fires and his score was zero.”‘There is something strange,'” he said, “‘about your SDA fires, with the water poured on acting more like gasoline.'”—P. B. Fairchild to Arthur L. White, December 4, 1965.
The Review and Herald publishing plant had grown to be one of the largest and best-equipped publishing establishments in the State of Michigan. Now it was just a pile of rubble. Why? 5BIO 224.6 – 5BIO 224.7
Israel vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, launching a blistering offensive in Gaza that has massively weakened the movement while reducing much of the territory to rubble.
Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its armed wing Mohammed Deif, and Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7 attack, have all been killed, as have a string of other commanders and political figures.
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Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2 Timothy 2 : 10
Yet unlike its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, whose cult of personality around its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah was a key pillar of its identity, Hamas has placed less of an emphasis on its top ranks.
[6] Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: [7] Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Proverbs 6 : 6-7
The group has remained tight-lipped over the names of its top ranks, particularly the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades.
“The name of the head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades will remain a secret,” said a source close to Hamas’s armed wing.
But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.
Acts 28 : 22
Researchers say it is likely that the role was inherited by Yahya Sinwar’s younger brother Mohammed, whom Hamas put in charge of the hostages taken into Gaza in 2023.
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“Yahya Sinwar’s personality was rather unique” and militants viewed him as a “hero”, said Laetitia Bucaille, who teaches political sociology at the INALCO institute of Middle East studies in Paris.
Mohammed Sinwar’s blood link to the slain commander, coupled with his own experience in the brigades, have conferred upon him an automatic authority, she said.
– Collective leadership –
Israel vowed after October 7 to eradicate Hamas, and while the movement has suffered staggering losses, it has not been crushed.
According to Yasser Abu Heen, founder of the Gaza-based Safa news agency, the loss of so many of its leaders has impacted Hamas, “but only temporarily”.
[4] For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. [6] And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
Esther 7 : 4, 6
Our people have been regarded as too insignificant to be worthy of notice, but a change will come. The Christian world is now making movements which will necessarily bring commandment-keeping people into prominence.94
The whole world is to be stirred with enmity against Seventh-day Adventists, because they will not yield homage to the papacy, by honoring Sunday, the institution of this antichristian power. It is the purpose of Satan to cause them to be blotted from the earth, in order that his supremacy of the world may not be disputed. Mar 217.2 – Mar 217.3
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“These hits do not pose an existential crisis, Hamas has its own way of running its institutions,” he said. “Israel will not be able to eradicate it.”
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Matthew 10 : 23
Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a member of Hamas’s political bureau described how it acts as the movement’s executive arm, voting on decisions and then taking action.
Political bureau membership is decided by the larger Shura Council, the equivalent of a parliament, he added.
All Going Ahead as One Man
“We will not know the new leaders’ names. There’s a push to keep their identities secret, and to maintain a collective sense of power,” said Leila Seurat of the Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies in Paris.
[7] Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel. [8] And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house. [9] But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
Judges 20 : 7-9
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“This isn’t a movement based on a charismatic leadership.”
While Hamas has survived thus far, it has yet to make the toughest decision of all concerning its future role in Gaza and in the Palestinian struggle for statehood.
Reduced under daily bombardment, Hamas faces demands not just from Israel but from powers around the world and even from some Palestinians to give up power.
– Dissent –
The Palestinian Authority, whose decades of corruption contributed to Hamas’s ascent, has pitched itself as a credible ruling entity for the battered territory.
Within Hamas, discussions are raging on whether to hand over power.
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According to sources cited by the Soufan Center in New York: “The internal debate has intensified to the point where some Hamas political leaders have considered breaking with the group’s military leaders in Gaza.”
Hamas is no stranger to division, with Seurat pointing to crises in the past over a range of issues from the Arab Spring to the movement’s alliance with Iran.
But the war with Israel has brought to a head frustration among ordinary Gazans sick of a conflict that has killed many thousands and reduced their territory to rubble.
Musa Abu Marzouk, a leading Hamas figure involved in talks over the ceasefire with Israel, told The New York Times in late February that as far as he was concerned, “if it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn’t have been October 7”.
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In March, hundreds of people took to the streets of Gaza, chanting “Out, out, Hamas out!”, after a rare call to protest circulated via Telegram.
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
John 19 : 15
And now another scene passed before him. He had been shown the work of Satan in leading the Jews to reject Christ, while they professed to honor His Father’s law. He now saw the Christian world under a similar deception in professing to accept Christ while they rejected God’s law. He had heard from the priests and elders the frenzied cry, “Away with Him!” “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” and now he heard from professedly Christian teachers the cry, “Away with the law!” He saw the Sabbath trodden under foot, and a spurious institution established in its place. Again Moses was filled with astonishment and horror. How could those who believed in Christ reject the law spoken by His own voice upon the sacred mount? How could any that feared God set aside the law which is the foundation of His government in heaven and earth? PP 476.2
“Some Palestinians want Hamas to go. Some have always been opposed, while others are just fed up,” said Seurat.
Pressure alone will not work, however, because Hamas has no viable competitor, and the people of Gaza simply do not have the means to stand up to it.
“They are still in control,” said Bucaille. “While Hamas has been weakened, no one can stand up to it for now.”
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