Israel-Hamas war latest: Hamas chooses Oct. 7 mastermind as their new leader as wider war feared

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader. The choice of the hardliner was a defiant move by Hamas, whose political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike.

Meanwhile, at least 19 people including six soldiers were wounded in northern Israel on Tuesday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants launched drone attacks, emergency officials said, as world leaders try to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war.

Most of the people were hurt by an Israeli interceptor rocket that missed and hit the ground. Local authorities issued sweeping new guidelines in northern Israel for all residents to “avoid all non-vital activity and to stay near a safe area” until further notice. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months during the war in Gaza.

Efforts continue around the region to prevent the war from becoming a wider conflict after the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.