A personnel change in the security agencies of Hamas in Gaza went into effect this week. Saleh Abu Sharkh, the commander of the security agencies — a kind of “chief of staff” of the official agencies (not of the military wing) — stepped down from his position to become director-general of the Transportation Ministry.

Tawfik Abu Naim, one of the men freed in the 2011 exchange of 1,027 prisoners for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, was appointed to replace him.

While these changes may not sound all that interesting, the hidden headline concerns Abu Naim’s patron: Yahya Sanwar. Already a high-ranking Hamas operative, Sanwar is emerging as Hamas’s uncompromising new strongman in Gaza.

Read more at The Times Of Israel