After Yahya Sinwar's death, Hamas to opt for ruling committee instead of a single successor: Reports

"The Hamas leadership's approach is not to appoint a successor to the late chief, the martyr Yahya Sinwar, until their next elections" scheduled for March "if conditions permit", a well-informed source from the group told AFP.

A five-member committee that was formed in August following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran "will take over the leadership of the group", the source added.

The committee was then formed to facilitate decision-making given the difficulty of communicating with Sinwar in Gaza before his death.

Israel last week claimed that its military executed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar during an operation in Gaza.

"The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was eliminated... by IDF (Israeli military) soldiers," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement as quoted by NDTV.

The execution of Sinwar is a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent Hamas leaders in recent months.

Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel's wanted list ever since. But he had managed to elude detection by possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels that Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.

Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in August.

Last month, Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut besides executing many of the group's top leadership.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into Gaza. In a retaliatory action, Israel has killed more than 42,000 people, turned much of Gaza into rubble, and displaced most of its population.