After Haniyeh's killing, who will lead Hamas?
"Relations with Arab and Islamic countries" will also be taken into account in picking its next leader, says a source
August 03, 2024
Palestinian group Hamas prepares to choose a political leader after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in a Wednesday attack in Tehran blamed on Israel.
Speculation is swirling over the crucial succession almost 10 months into the Gaza war which erupted following Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
Qatar-based Haniyeh, elected Hamas’s political chief in 2017, died in a pre-dawn strike on his accommodation while he was visiting the Iranian capital for the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
A source from the group told AFP that "relations with Arab and Islamic countries" will also be taken into account in picking its next leader.
Here are some of the senior officials tipped as Hamas’s next potential political leader:
Khalil al-Hayya
Khalil al-Hayya is the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau in the Gaza Strip, and said to be well acquainted with the group’s leader in the territory Yahya Sinwar.
Musa Abu Marzuk
The senior member of Hamas’s political bureau is considered similar to Haniyeh in his pragmatic approach to negotiations.
In the 1990s he lived in the United States, where he was arrested on charges of raising funds for the movement’s armed wing. He then lived in exile, including in Jordan, Egypt and Qatar.
He has previously been mentioned as a possible successor to Hamas leaders, without success so far.
Zaher Jabarin
Hamas’s long-time treasurer was close to Haniyeh, and has sometimes been described as one of his right-hand men.
After being detained in Israeli prisons, he was released in 2011 as part of an exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held hostage for five years.
Khaled Meshaal
Haniyeh’s predecessor has lived in exile since 1967, in Jordan, Qatar, Syria and other countries.
He was propelled to the head of the movement after Israel killed Hamas’s founder, Ahmed Yassin, and then his successor Abdelaziz al-Rantisi.
In 1997 Meshaal survived a poisoning assassination attempt in Amman by agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
Yahya Sinwar
Sinwar, elected in February 2017 to lead Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is a an alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack.
The ascetic 61-year-old spent 23 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange.
