Hamas announces the election of Khalil al-Hayya as the movement's new leader

Hamas announced on Monday that Khalil al-Hayya had been elected the new leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

"The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the election of the fighting brother Khalil al-Hayya to the chairmanship of the movement's political bureau, replacing the martyred leader Yahya Sinwar," the movement said on Telegram.

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader in Gaza and later chairman of the movement's political bureau, was killed in October 2024 by the Israeli army during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.

Considered one of the main architects of the October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, he took over the leadership of Hamas's political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024.

Khalil al-Hayya, born in 1960, is the movement's chief negotiator and spent three years in Israeli prisons. He was also the target of an assassination attempt in Doha in 2025, attributed to Israel. His election was widely expected.

"Khalil al-Hayya was elected by an overwhelming majority," a senior Hamas official told AFP, adding that he is expected to officially take office next week.

"The political bureau will meet in Istanbul in the coming days to form committees and begin restructuring the leadership bodies of Hamas," the same source continued.

Hamas relies on a Shura Council, an advisory body responsible in particular for electing the governing bodies, similar to a kind of steering committee, and on a political bureau which provides political leadership for the movement.

After Yahya Sinwar was killed, the movement avoided immediately appointing a single successor, favouring collective management, according to Hamas experts.

Representatives of Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, also declared their "total support" for al-Hayya.