Hamas has completed internal elections ahead of appointing a new head of its political bureau, according to a senior source in the terrorist organization cited Sunday by Agence France-Presse.
The two leading candidates for the post are Khalil al-Hayya, the terror group’s leader in Gaza who has led negotiations with Israel to end the war, and Khaled Mashal, the organization’s overseas leader who previously headed the political bureau until 2017.
According to the AFP report, the internal elections were held in recent weeks in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and among Hamas members living abroad. Security prisoners held in Israeli prisons were also granted voting rights.
“The organization will announce the winner once he is chosen, likely during the month of Ramadan,” the Hamas source said, adding that the group has also recently completed the selection of its Shura Council.
A second source in the organization confirmed the report, while a third said the elected leader is expected to serve “only one year” as part of a transitional period. Thousands of Hamas members reportedly took part in the vote.
AFP reported that voters elect a new Shura Council, which in turn appoints members of the political bureau, who then select the organization’s leader.
The elections come amid major changes in Hamas’ leadership structure, which has been severely weakened during the war with Israel. In July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh, then head of the political bureau, was killed in Tehran. He was replaced by Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza and one of the architects of the October 7 massacre, who was also killed three months later.
Following the series of killings during the war, Hamas operated under a temporary five-member leadership council until a new leader could be chosen.
Mashal and al-Hayya are both members of that council, along with Zaher Jabarin, Mohammed Darwish and Nizar Awadallah.
According to a December report in the Saudi newspaper Asharq, the decision to dissolve the temporary council and elect a permanent leader was driven by two main factors: the ceasefire in Gaza, which ended the organization’s emergency status, and sharp internal disagreements over strategic issues, including Hamas’ future rule in Gaza and its regional alliances.
Hamas’ general elections, which are supposed to be held every four years, were originally scheduled for early 2025 but were postponed because of the war. In the last elections, in March 2021, Haniyeh was elected head of the political bureau. After his killing, Sinwar assumed the role before he too was killed.