Hamas announced Monday that Khalil al-Hayya has been elected as the new leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, succeeding Yahya Sinwar following months of collective leadership after his death.
Khalil al-Hayya © NSA
Hamas announced Monday that Khalil al-Hayya has been elected as the new leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, succeeding Yahya Sinwar following months of collective leadership after his death.
"The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announces the election of brother mujahid Khalil al-Hayya as head of the movement's political bureau, succeeding the martyred leader Yahya Sinwar," the group said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Al-Hayya won the internal vote in a run-off against former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, according to a senior Hamas official who told AFP the election was decided "by an overwhelming majority." Al-Hayya is expected to formally assume the role next week.
"The election process was conducted through a highly complex and secretive mechanism because of the difficult security situation and the occupation's assassination of several political and military leaders," a source within Hamas said.
Born in Gaza City in 1960, al-Hayya has been associated with Hamas since its founding in 1987, after joining the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s alongside Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh. A founding figure of the movement's political wing, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006, when Hamas won parliamentary elections, and went on to lead its parliamentary bloc.
Al-Hayya has survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts over the years, including a 2007 strike that killed several members of his family.
He was targeted again last September in an Israeli strike on Hamas's office in Doha, which killed his son Hammam al-Hayya and his office director, though al-Hayya himself survived along with other senior leaders present, including Meshaal.
Based mainly in Qatar, al-Hayya has played a central role in indirect negotiations with Israel over ceasefires and prisoner and hostage exchanges, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
He led Hamas's negotiating team in talks that produced the US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025.
Following Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran in 2024, he became one of the movement's most visible figures on the international stage.
Since Sinwar's death, Hamas had been governed by a five-member leadership council headed by Mohammed Darwish. Al-Hayya will now serve out the remainder of the current electoral term, running until 2027.
Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and several other countries.
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