It is entering the final phase of electing a new leadership, following a months-long internal election process held in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and among its members abroad.
Thousands of officials participated in the renewal of the Shura Council, an advisory body with more than 80 members – most of them clerics – which is reconstituted every four years. The Council proceeded to elect the 18-member political office, which now undertakes to choose the head of the organization.
According to a source cited by Agence France-Presse, the process has entered its final stage and the announcement of the name of the new president is expected probably during Ramadan. Another official said the politburo might appoint a one-year transitional leadership, with the main goal of restoring internal cohesion and filling top-level vacancies.
The two dominant ones
Two persons project as the main contenders for the leadership.
Khaled Meshaal, 69, former head of the political bureau (2004–2017) and currently president of the diaspora office, is considered experienced and with strong international connections. Born in the West Bank in 1956, he joined Hamas in Kuwait and lived successively in Jordan, Syria and Qatar, without ever having resided in Gaza. According to the organization Counter Extremism Project, during his days Hamas evolved from a purely armed organization to a hybrid structure with a political and military dimension.
Opposite him is Gaza-born Khalil Al Haya, 65, who has led the organization since 2006. He led the negotiations with Israel that led to the recent ceasefire and is said to enjoy the support of its military arm, the Ezzedine Al Qassem Brigades.
Leadership vacuum after targeted killings
The election process is taking place.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniya was killed in Tehran on July 31, 2024, in an operation attributed to Israel. A few months later, on October 16, Israeli forces killed in Rafah the then head of the organization in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who had succeeded Haniya and was considered the main organizer of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
After Sinwar’s death, Hamas appointed a five-member political bureau of an interim nature, pending the completion of internal elections. The emergence of a new leader is now called upon to signal the strategic direction of the organization in the post-war period, both at a political and organizational level.
