Hamas election results: al-Hayya and Meshal retained their posts, one of them will head the “Politburo”

Thus, al-Hayya and Meshaal remained in their “positions,” and Jabarin “replaced” Salah al-Arouri, who was liquidated on January 2, 2024 in Beirut.

These elections were a prelude to the election of the head of Hamas’s political bureau. Khalil al-Hayya and Khalid Mashal are vying for this post. The “winner” is expected to be determined within the next two weeks.

Sources in the Hamas leadership told Al-Akhbar that it was decided in Gaza to choose another sectoral leader to replace al-Hayya if he is elected head of the Politburo.

Brief information

Khalil al-Hayya

Khalil al-Hayya (“Abu Osama”) was born on November 5, 1960 in the Gaza Strip, which was then under Egyptian rule. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Islamic University of Gaza, followed by a master’s degree in hadith studies from the University of Jordan and a doctorate from the University of the Holy Quran and Islamic Sciences. After receiving his first diploma, he worked as a part-time teacher.

Al-Hayya joined Hamas during the first intifada, after graduating from the Islamic University of Gaza. Within the movement he gradually became one of the political functionaries of the Gaza Strip. In 2006, after Hamas won the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, he was elected as a deputy from the Gaza district. During the period of the violent confrontation between Hamas and Fatah, he made harsh statements against Mahmoud Abbas and rejected the idea of ​​new elections or a referendum, citing the mandate Hamas received in the elections.

In 2007, Israel struck al-Hayya’s house in the Shujaiyya neighborhood of Gaza; he himself survived, but, according to various sources, seven or eight of his relatives were killed, including his wife, three children and three brothers. In 2008, one of his sons, who commanded a missile unit, was killed by the IDF. In July 2014, during an operation in Gaza, another son, daughter-in-law and grandson were killed in a strike on his home.

In subsequent years, al-Hayya was involved in political and inter-Palestinian negotiations. He participated in contacts between Hamas and Fatah, and in January 2022 he traveled to Algeria with Hussam Badran for negotiations on Palestinian reconciliation. In October 2022, he led the line to restore relations between Hamas and the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Since 2017, al-Hayya has been identified as the deputy head of Hamas’s regional politburo in Gaza; was considered one of Yahya Sinuar’s closest people and his deputy.

He was one of the “architects” of planning the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

After the assassination of Ismail Haniyya and Yahya Sinouar in 2024, Hamas began to present al-Hayya as the leader of the movement in Gaza, although he was located outside the strip. He became one of Hamas’s chief negotiators in indirect hostage and ceasefire talks with Israel, based in Qatar, according to Israeli and international media reports.

On September 9, 2025, Khalil al-Hayya survived an Israeli strike on a Hamas facility in Doha. His son Himam and his office manager Jihad Labad were killed in the strike.

Khalid Mashal

Khalid Meshaal was born in 1956 in the village of Silwad (a suburb of Ramallah). In 1967, he and his family fled to Jordan, from where the family soon moved to Kuwait, where Khalid lived until 1990.

In Kuwait, Khalid graduated from high school and university, and is a physics teacher by training. While still at the university, Mashal headed the student “Islamic Bloc”; in 1987, he was one of the founders of the Palestinian student group, which was soon transformed into the Hamas organization, which aims to create an “Islamic state of Palestine” throughout Israel.

In 1990, he moved to Jordan, where he organized a series of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. In 1996, he was elected chairman of the Politburo of the terrorist organization Hamas.

In 1997, Israeli intelligence services attempted to destroy him, Meshaal was poisoned, but Jordanian intelligence services detained the “liquidators”, in exchange for their lives, Israel released Sheikh Ahmad Yassin from prison and transferred the antidote for Meshaal to Amman.

In 1999, the Jordanian authorities, at the request of Israel, denied him asylum; Mashaal moved to Damascus (Syria), where his headquarters were located for many years. In 2012, amid the civil war in Syria, and due to possible persecution by the Assad regime, Meshaal moved to Qatar.

Khalid Meshal is on the list of the most dangerous terrorists wanted by Israeli intelligence services. However, in December 2012, shortly after Operation Pillar of Cloud, the Israeli authorities did not interfere with his visit to Gaza and did not attempt to destroy him.

At the beginning of May 2017, it was announced that Ismail Haniyya had been elected as the new head of the Hamas Politburo. At the same time, Mashal formally ceased to hold any position in the organization, leaving the Politburo.

In April 2021, he was elected head of Hamas in the Diaspora.

On July 31, 2024, after the liquidation of Haniyya in Tehran, it was reported that Mashaal temporarily headed the Hamas Politburo. However, it was soon announced that Yahya Sinouar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, became the temporary head of the Hamas Politburo (until new elections).

After the liquidation of Sinouar, which was officially announced on October 17, 2024, Meshaal was declared the interim head of the Hamas politburo. However, this was not subsequently confirmed.