ALBAWABA - Hamas announced on July 20 that Khalil al-Hayya was chosen as the new leader of the Movement's Political Bureau.
The Palestinian movement said on Monday that the election of leader Khalil al-Hayya as head of the movement, succeeding former leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces on October 16, 2024, during a chance encounter in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
The new leader of the movement will replace the five-member leadership council, headed by Mohammed Darwish, the head of the General Shura Council, since the assassination of former political bureau chief Yahya Sinwar in October 2014. Sinwar had assumed the role from former political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was also assassinated by Israel in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in July of the same year.
(L to R) Member of the Hamas political bureau Nizar Awadallah, deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau Khalil al-Hayya and the head of the political council of Hamas Mohammad Ismail Darwish, meeting with him in Tehran. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
The new leader will immediately head the 18-member General Political Bureau, which includes the new representative of the movement’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. This representative was chosen after Israel assassinated the wing’s commander, Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, in an airstrike on Gaza City last May.
Who is Khalil al-Hayya?
Khalil al-Hayya is a Palestinian politician who served as the deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August to October 2024, succeeding the deceased Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed during the Gaza war.
