Gaza : Hamas is in the final phase of selecting a new leader with two senior figures emerging as frontrunners a senior Hamas official told AFP.According to the source, the contest for head of the political bureau has narrowed to Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al Hayya.
The development follows Hamas’s completion of internal elections and the formation of a new Shura Council a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars. Council members are elected every four years by representatives from Hamas’s Gaza, West Bank, and external leadership branches. Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote.
Hayya, 65 a Gaza native and Hamas’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks has held key leadership roles for nearly two decades. Meshaal who previously led the political bureau from 2004 to 2017 is a veteran figure in Hamas’s external leadership and currently heads the movement’s diaspora office.
Sources indicate Hayya enjoys backing from Hamas’s armed wing the Ezzedine Al Qassem Brigades. The leadership transition follows a turbulent period after Israel killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in 2024 after which Yahya Sinwar was appointed.
Observers say the outcome could shape Hamas’s political and military strategy in the coming years.
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