Hamas names Khalil al-Hayya as new leader after run-off with Khaled Meshaal

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Hamas has named Khalil al-Hayya as its new leader, succeeding Yahya Sinwar who was killed by the Israeli army in October 2024.

Al-Hayya, a former deputy chairman of the Palestinian group and one of five members of its leadership council, won an internal ballot in a run-off against former Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, Hamas said in a statement on Monday.

Al-Hayya rose in importance after the killings in 2024 of top Hamas leaders Sinwar and military commander Mohammed Deif in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated during a visit to Tehran the same year.

With those losses, al-Hayya became one of five leaders steering Hamas’s leadership council. The leadership council was the temporary, five-member ruling committee formed in late 2024 to govern the group during the war.

Born in the Gaza Strip in 1960, al-Hayya has been part of Hamas since it was established in 1987. He became especially important on the diplomatic front, based mainly in Qatar, which emerged as the main hub for mediation with other countries, including Israel, Egypt, and the United States.

Operating outside Gaza allowed him to travel and coordinate between neighbouring countries without the constraints of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Al-Hayya has also led Hamas’s delegations in mediated talks with Israel to try to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Al-Hayya’s family has suffered as a result of Israeli attacks. During the 2014 war, an Israeli strike destroyed the house of his eldest son, Osama, killing him, his wife, and three of their children.

In September last year, an Israeli attack on a residential complex in central Doha, Qatar, killed five people including his son Humam.

More to come…