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Hamas leadership vote
Hamas announced the election of Khalil al-Hayya to the presidency of its political bureau on Monday, July 20, replacing Yahya Sinwar, martyred in October 2024 by the Israeli army during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.
““secret and very complex” election”
The vote was held after several months of collegial leadership, with the poll described as “secret and very complex,” and it came after a second round opposing Khaled Meshaal, neither candidate having obtained the required majority of 50 percent of the votes plus one in the first round, according to Al Jazeera.
In the internal ballot result, Al-Hayya won the presidency of Hamas’s Political Bureau after receiving 35 votes to 34 for Khaled Mashal, according to Walid al-Omari, head of Al Jazeera’s office in Palestine.
Ynetnews reported that the election reflected an intense struggle over Hamas’s direction after Oct. 7 and whether it should continue along the path that led to war and widespread destruction in Gaza or seek a new course to ensure its survival, with discussions in the movement’s central Shura Council described as “particularly stormy” and reflecting a deep internal rupture.
Split over Oct. 7
Ynetnews said the internal contest exposed a deep split over Oct. 7 and Gaza’s destruction, with one camp arguing that the Oct. 7 attack had been a strategic mistake and that the human and material price paid by Gaza was unimaginable.
The same ynet source quoted Mashaal’s camp saying, “The human and material price Gaza paid is insane and nearly eliminated the movement’s institutional infrastructure,” describing arguments that continuing the same methods could lead to the organization’s final collapse.
Ynetnews also described an opposing camp aligned with Hamas’s leadership in Gaza and its military wing, whose members rejected any attempt to alter the movement’s character or move away from the line established by Sinwar.
That Gaza-aligned camp’s central argument, as quoted by ynet, was that “Gaza is the one that played with blood and fire, and it is the one that paid the price,” and therefore must retain control over Hamas’s leadership and direction.
What changes next
Ynetnews reported that Hamas officials believe al-Hayya’s election closes the door, at least for now, to any significant change in the group’s positions in negotiations or on Gaza’s future, because al-Hayya had been central to shaping Hamas’s demands.
“a full Israeli withdrawal, a complete end to the war and a hostage-prisoner exchange agreement”
The ynet source said al-Hayya’s election is expected to make those demands official and binding, including “a full Israeli withdrawal, a complete end to the war and a hostage-prisoner exchange agreement,” as his negotiating role is now elevated to leading the movement as a whole.
Al-Hayya is expected to officially assume his duties next week, and multiple outlets said the political bureau will meet in Istanbul in the coming days to form committees and begin restructuring Hamas’s governing bodies.
In the same internal framework described by tv5monde, Hamas’s 2021 approach requires that main leadership positions reflect the three geographic sectors of the movement: Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and the diaspora, while the armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, declared its “total support” for the new leader.