Al Jazeera Podcasts.

Today, Hamas' defiant choice for a new political leader.

Hamas has made it clear that despite everything Israel has done to Gaza over the last 10 months,

that Hamas there is not destroyed.

What the rise of Yahya Sinwar from a Gaza refugee camp to the top of Hamas' leadership

could mean for a ceasefire.

I'm Malika Bilal, and this is the take.

This notion of him being a hardliner comes from the fact that he's been very stubborn about what his overall goals are,

or what he believes Hamas' overall goals should be, which is, you know, they see themselves

as a national liberation movement and their goals to liberate Palestine and for Palestinians

to have their own state and independence. He's not willing to compromise on that in the long term.

My name is Muhammad Safin.

I'm a senior producer with AJ Plus.

I work on explainers, and for the last few years,

I've been doing a lot of long-form explainers on Hamas

and on Palestinians and the Palestinian issue in general.

Muhammad, welcome back to the take. It's good to have you. You know that last week,

Yahyaz-Nwar was announced as the new political chief at large of Hamas. And that followed the

assassination of Ismail Hania in a suspected Israeli attack in Iran on July 31st.

So Sinwar is his successor.

I want to start with his background.

What from his early life shaped who he is today?

...