According to reports from Ra’i al-Youm, informed sources within Hamas have revealed that the organization is currently governed by a leadership council consisting of five members, serving as a temporary substitute for the political bureau chief.
Hamas has recently concluded the election of a new consultative council, which acts as an advisory body and serves as a link between the political bureau and the leadership frameworks.An informed source stated that, according to the internal statutes of the movement, a body comprising over eighty members from the general council elects the head of the movement along with members of the political bureau.
Members of the consultative council are elected every four years from three regions of the movement: Gaza Strip, West Bank, and outside of Palestine.A Hamas official told AFP that the movement has completed its internal elections across the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the political bureau chief. He added that the competition has narrowed down to two leading figures: Khaled Mashal and Khalil Al-Hayya.The official indicated that Hamas will issue a statement immediately following the election of the movement’s leader, likely to be released during Ramadan. Another source confirmed that Hamas is indeed in the final stage of selecting its political bureau head.Khaled Mashal, who leads Hamas from outside Palestinian territories, was born in the village of Silwad in the occupied West Bank in 1956 and has previously served as the head of the political bureau. Several Hamas officials regard him as ‘pragmatic and moderate.’
Khalil Al-Hayya, born in Gaza City on November 5, 1960, heads the movement in the Gaza Strip and also leads Hamas’s negotiating team. According to sources within the movement, he enjoys the support of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza.Since the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of Hamas, in July 2024, Yahya Sinwar has led the movement until he was martyred in October of the same year during clashes with Israeli forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Following this, Hamas formed a leadership council composed of five prominent figures, chaired by Muhammad Darwish, the head of Hamas’s general council.Israel has identified Yahya Sinwar as the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023, attack. Two sources within Hamas emphasized that the next leader of the movement will oversee the political bureau for a year, which is considered an exceptional electoral term, after which the movement will conduct further elections for a new term for its consultative and leadership structures lasting four years.Sources did not provide information regarding the number of individuals eligible to vote within the movement or the electoral mechanisms under challenging security conditions for Hamas which has sustained heavy blows from the Israeli army during the conflict.
