Hamas Elects Khalil al-Hayya as New Political Bureau Chief

The Palestinian group Hamas has announced the election of Khalil al-Hayya as the new head of its political bureau. Al-Hayya’s election on Monday follows the martyrdom of his predecessor, Yahya Sinwar, in an Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip in 2024. Sinwar had previously assumed the position after political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel in the same year. Al-Hayya himself survived an assassination attempt by Israel in Qatar last year. According to Al Jazeera, his appointment came after a second round of voting in the movement’s General Shura Council, which pitted him against former political chief Khaled Meshaal, following the failure of either candidate to secure the required majority in the first ballot. The election of al-Hayya—who previously led the group’s Gaza branch while in exile—is consistent with Hamas’s 2021 internal framework, which stipulates that the top leadership position should reflect its main geographical sectors: Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and the diaspora. Al-Hayya, who was part of a five-member interim leadership council formed in late 2024 to manage governance during the war, will now serve until the end of the current term in 2027. Born in Gaza City on 5 November 1960, al-Hayya grew up in a conservative family deeply affected by the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent Israeli occupation. Witnessing military raids on his family home in Gaza and the arrest of relatives during his childhood shaped his early political consciousness. In March 1980, a pivotal meeting with Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin led him into organised activism. Al-Hayya pursued extensive Islamic education, earning a bachelor’s degree from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1983, a master’s degree from the University of Jordan in 1986, and a doctorate in Hadith studies from Sudan in 1997. He later served as dean of student affairs at the Islamic University of Gaza and joined the Palestinian Scholars Association. A founding member of Hamas in 1987, al-Hayya was repeatedly imprisoned by Israeli forces during the First Intifada in the late 1980s and endured severe torture during his detention.