{"id":107106,"date":"2026-07-22T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=107106"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:00:55","slug":"khalil-al-hayya-elected-hamas-political-bureau-chairman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/khalil-al-hayya-elected-hamas-political-bureau-chairman\/","title":{"rendered":"Khalil al-Hayya Elected Hamas Political Bureau Chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n22 July 2026 | 13:00 CAT
\n3-minute read<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Who is Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas\u2019 newly elected political bureau chairman? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Khalil al-Hayya was officially elected chairman of Hamas’ political bureau on July 20, 2026. He succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2024.<\/p>\n

Born in Gaza in 1960, al-Hayya was raised in the enclave and later became a founding member of Hamas. Over more than four decades, he has served in senior legislative, organisational and media roles within Hamas. He is also known for serving as Hamas’ chief negotiator in indirect ceasefire and hostage exchange talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt.<\/p>\n

During an interview<\/a> on Radio Islam International, Palestinian affairs analyst Osama Nazzal said al-Hayya is among the last remaining members of Hamas’ original senior command, following the deaths of many of the movement’s top leaders in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is one of the\u00a0last people of the first line of leadership of Hamas movement, as he lost almost all of his\u00a0brothers and all of the people he worked with for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Hayya\u2019s election was confirmed after an internal ballot conducted by Hamas\u2019 General Shura Council. An initial vote in May failed to produce the absolute majority required under the movement\u2019s internal rules, prompting a run-off in which al-Hayya won 35 votes, while former political chief Khaled Meshaal received 34 votes.<\/p>\n

Nazzal observed al-Hayya\u2019s victory is unsurprising due to his deep personal losses, direction of the movement\u2019s strategic operations for months and his leadership role in the ceasefire negotiations.<\/p>\n

Will Hamas\u2019 strategy change? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Analysts say al-Hayya\u2019s election signals Hamas intends to maintain its core positions on rearmament, political sovereignty and resistance to immediate disarmament proposals linked to post-war Gaza.<\/p>\n

Nazzal explained that Hamas\u2019 political and military strategy must fundamentally shift to address the unprecedented humanitarian and structural disaster that has reordered Palestinian life.<\/p>\n

He said this reflects the scale of destruction wrought by nearly three years of Israel\u2019s onslaught on Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael killed 73 000 people, injured about 200 000\u00a0others. We are talking about a real disaster in Gaza because of the war, a large number of amputees,\u00a0handicapped, homeless people, no infrastructure at all. So the situation does not allow the\u00a0Palestinians really to continue with the strategy that they had in the past and they must have a new\u00a0strategy,\u201d Nazzal noted.<\/p>\n

Nazzal noted that a new strategy must encompass Palestine in its entirety, including Jerusalem and the West Bank, where Israel has accelerated illegal land seizures for colonial settlement expansion.<\/p>\n

He added that any new strategy must also address the occupied West Bank, where Israeli military operations and settler violence have intensified alongside continued settlement expansion.<\/p>\n

Just yesterday, Israeli settlers stormed the village of Abu Falah (historically associated with the Jarir area) near Ramallah, killing two Palestinian citizens and destroying local property. This escalation underscores a coordinated pressure campaign making daily life increasingly untenable across all Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the Palestinian situation requires the new leadership to secure a permanent end to Israel\u2019s aggression, to prioritise humanitarian aid, rebuild infrastructure and stabilise the economy, the analyst said.<\/p>\n

Concerns for al-Hayya\u2019s safety<\/strong><\/p>\n

Al-Hayya has survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts, including a 2007 airstrike on his family home and a September 2025 bombing targeted at a compound in Doha. He has suffered severe personal loss throughout the conflict; an estimated four of his sons, his wife, and numerous extended family members have been killed in Israeli strikes over the years.<\/p>\n

In his new role, al-Hayya also faces safety threats. Israel has for decades employed targeted killings against senior Hamas leaders, describing the strategy as a means of disrupting the group’s military and political command structure. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed several high-ranking Hamas officials, including former political bureau chief Yahya Sinwar and military commander Mohammed Deif, while repeatedly stating that they intend to dismantle the organisation’s senior ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think,\u00a0yes, Israel is going to target him as it targeted him before and this is not only restricted to\u00a0al-Hayya as a person but Israel nowadays kills any Palestinian who rejects its policy and who\u00a0rejects its occupation for the Palestinian territory,\u201d Nazzal said.<\/p>\n

Listen <\/strong>to the full interview<\/a> with Osama Nazzal on Sabaahul Muslim, presented by Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za 22 July 2026 | 13:00 CAT 3-minute read Who is Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas\u2019 newly elected political bureau chairman? Khalil al-Hayya was officially elected chairman of Hamas’ political bureau on July 20, 2026. He succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2024. Born in Gaza in 1960, al-Hayya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":107107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,4997],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-22-125738.png?fit=764%2C488&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-rRw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-29 18:31:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107109,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107106\/revisions\/107109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}