Hamas is in the final phase of choosing a new leader, with Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya as the two contenders, a senior official says.
CAIRO: A senior Hamas official has confirmed the Palestinian Islamist movement is in the final stage of selecting a new leader. The official, speaking anonymously, said the race is now between two prominent figures: Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya.
A second Hamas source confirmed the development to AFP. The movement recently completed forming a new Shura Council and a new political bureau.
The process aims to renew internal legitimacy and fill leadership vacancies created by Israeli strikes. Several Hamas leaders have been killed since the war in Gaza began following the group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“The movement has completed its internal elections in the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the head of the political bureau,” the official said. Members of the council are elected every four years by representatives from Gaza, the West Bank, and the external leadership.
Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote. The council then elects the political bureau, which selects the movement’s head.
A third source said the new leader will serve a transitional period of one year. Thousands of Hamas members voted to choose the council and bureau, though the voting method was not specified.
“The primary goal of the process was to renew internal legitimacy and fill leadership vacancies,” the source added. The new leader will face the challenge of navigating international calls for disarmament and resistance from the group’s armed wing.
Hamas has stated it would surrender weapons to a Palestinian authority in Gaza under certain conditions. Both Meshaal and Hayya bring extensive experience within the movement.
Hayya, 65, is a Gaza native and Hamas’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks. He has held senior roles since at least 2006, according to the Counter Extremism Project.
Meshaal led the political bureau from 2004 to 2017 and currently heads the movement’s diaspora office. He has never lived in Gaza and oversaw Hamas’s evolution into a political-military hybrid.
A Hamas source said last month that Hayya enjoys backing from the group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassem Brigades. The leadership selection follows the killings of former chiefs Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces.
After Sinwar’s death, Hamas opted for an interim five-member leadership committee based in Qatar. This postponed appointing a single leader until elections, given the risk of the new chief being targeted.
The Sun Malaysia
