GAZA: Hamas announced on Monday that it had elected Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator in indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, as the new head of its political bureau.
“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 al-Sinwar,” the group said in a statement.
Hayya succeeds Yahya al-Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza a year after Israel accused him of being one of the main planners of the October 7, 2023, attacks.
Following Sinwar’s death, Hamas had been governed by a five-member leadership council headed by senior official Mohammed Darwish.
Born in 1960, Hayya survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Doha last year, although one of his sons was killed in the strike.
According to a senior Hamas official, Hayya secured an overwhelming victory over former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the leadership election.
“Khalil al-Hayya was elected by an overwhelming majority,” the official told AFP, adding that he is expected to officially assume the position next week.
“The political bureau will meet in Istanbul within days to form committees and begin restructuring Hamas’s leadership bodies.”
The official added that the existing five-member leadership council would be dissolved, with its members submitting their resignations to the movement’s Shura Council.
“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 Hamas source said.
Representatives of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, also expressed their “full support” for Hayya.
A native of the Gaza Strip, Hayya is regarded as a veteran Hamas leader and has lost several close relatives, including his eldest son, in Israeli air strikes.
Considered to have close ties with Iran, he has played a central role in negotiations with Israel, helping broker ceasefires during the 2014 conflict and participating in efforts to end the current war in Gaza.
Hayya has been affiliated with Hamas since its establishment in 1987. Before that, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s, the movement from which Hamas later emerged.
He was detained multiple times by Israel while living in Gaza.
In 2007, an Israeli air strike on his family home in Gaza City’s Sejaiyeh neighbourhood killed several relatives. During the 2014 conflict, another Israeli strike destroyed the home of his eldest son, Osama, killing him, his wife and three of their children.
Hayya was not present during either attack. He left Gaza several years ago and has since been based in Qatar, where he oversees Hamas’s relations with Arab and Islamic countries.
