Hamas Choosing New Leader !! Who will lead , Khaled Meshaal Or Khalil Al-Hayya ……?

VoM News Desk | February 23, 2026 | 10:01 AM IST | Breaking News, Politics, World | Follow on Google News

Hamas Choosing New Leader !! Who will lead , Khaled Meshaal Or Khalil Al-Hayya ……!

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement has reached the final stage of selecting a new head of its political bureau, with two senior figures competing for the position.

The group has recently completed the formation of a new Shura Council — a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars — along with a new political bureau, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to the source, the leadership race is now between Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. A second Hamas source confirmed the development.

Members of the Shura Council are elected every four years by representatives from Hamas’s three branches: Gaza, the occupied West Bank and its external leadership. Hamas prisoners held in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote. The council then elects the political bureau, which selects the movement’s overall leader.

Leadership Transition After War Losses

Since the Gaza war began following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, several senior leaders have been killed by Israeli forces, including former chiefs Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.

After Haniyeh was killed in Tehran in July 2024, Hamas appointed Sinwar as his successor. Sinwar was later killed by Israeli forces in Rafah. The group subsequently established an interim five-member leadership committee based in Qatar, postponing the appointment of a single leader due to security concerns.

A third Hamas source said the new leader will serve for only one year as part of a transitional arrangement aimed at “renewing internal legitimacy” and filling leadership vacancies.

Hayya, 65, a Gaza native and chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, is believed to have support from the group’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Meshaal, who previously headed the political bureau from 2004 to 2017, currently leads the movement’s diaspora office and has lived in several countries including Jordan, Syria and Qatar.

The new leader will face mounting international pressure — particularly from the United States and Israel — to disarm, while balancing internal resistance from Hamas’s military wing. Although Hamas has indicated it could surrender its weapons to a Palestinian authority in Gaza under certain conditions, no agreement has been reached.

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