Members of Hamas’s ‘military wing’ in the Gaza town of Rafah on Jan. 31, 2017. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

JNS.org – Hamas’s newly elected leader in Gaza is expected to make a number of internal and structural changes to the terror organization, according to an unnamed senior Hamas official.

Yahya Sinwar will use Lebanese terror group Hezbollah “as his model” and “allocate considerable funds” for his foreign affairs and security policies “at the expense of civil and welfare activities,” the official told Israel Hayom.

On Sinwar’s agenda are plans to turn Hamas’s “military wing into the strongest body in the Gaza Strip,” and to act on “relations with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, the conflict with Israel and dealing with [Gaza’s] civilian population.”

“We must remember that for the last six months, [Sinwar’s predecessor Ismail] Haniyeh has been out of Gaza in his election campaign in the Persian Gulf principalities and Arab states, and that Sinwar was essentially leading the movement,” the official added. Now Sinwar can “put [his plans] into practice.”