Report: Hamas leadership vote concludes in Gaza; West Bank, diaspora set to vote later today

Voting for Hamas’s next political leader has concluded in the Gaza Strip, according to a source speaking to the Qatari Al-Araby network, who says that the votes among Hamas members in West Bank and in the Palestinian diaspora are set to take place later today.

The two main candidates to take over the terror group’s leadership are current Gaza politburo chief Khalil al-Hayya, who has been the group’s top negotiator over the past several years, and Khaled Mashaal, a senior leader who headed Hamas from 1996 to 2017.

Hamas has not had an elected leader since July 2024, when a bomb planted by Israel in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, who was elected to a second term as terror chief in 2021. Following the assassination, Hamas announced that Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza, would take over as leader, without holding internal elections.

Sinwar, who is credited as the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, assault, only served as leader for three months before he was killed in the Rafah area. Since his death, Hamas has not formally named a successor or interim leader, instead reportedly being led by a quintet of senior officials based outside Gaza, primarily in Qatar and Turkey.

Hamas generally holds leadership elections every four years, but the latest vote, initially scheduled for 2025, was delayed by the war. During the war, Israel assassinated most of the terror group’s senior political and military commanders.

The elections have historically been conducted in secrecy, with only a few hundred to a few thousand senior members quietly casting ballots and Hamas keeping results under wraps to shield its operatives from exposure to Israeli assassination attempts.

Nurit Yohanan contributed to this report.