On Sunday, the Hamas movement entered the final stage of internal elections to choose the head of its political bureau, with the competition limited to Khalil Al-Hayya and Khaled Meshaal. The movement has already completed the election of a new Shura Council, which represents the link between the political office and the leadership frameworks.

Published on: 02/22/2026 - 17:56 Last updated: 02/22/2026 - 18:00

A Hamas official said on Sunday that the movement, in accordance with the bylaws, “has completed its internal elections in its three regions (Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and abroad), and has reached the final stage of choosing the head of the political bureau.” He added, "The competition is limited to the most prominent leaders, Khaled Meshaal and Khalil Al-Hayya."

Hamas currently runs a five-member leadership council as a temporary replacement for the head of the political bureau. The movement has already completed the election of a new Shura Council that represents the link between the political bureau and the leadership frameworks, and a body consisting of more than eighty members elects the head of the movement and the members of the bureau in accordance with its bylaws. Members of the Shura Council are elected every four years in the movement’s three regions.

According to the official, Hamas “will issue a statement as soon as the movement’s head is chosen, and it will most likely be issued during the month of Ramadan.” Another source confirmed that Hamas is in the final stage of electing the head of its political bureau.

Biography of the main candidates

Khaled Meshaal is the head of Hamas abroad. He was born in the village of Silwad in the occupied West Bank in 1956. He was a former head of the movement’s political bureau, and a number of Hamas officials consider him a “pragmatist and centrist.”

As for Khalil Al-Hayya, he was born in Gaza City on November 5, 1960. He is the head of the movement in the Gaza Strip, in addition to heading the Hamas negotiating delegation, and he enjoys the support of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, according to sources in the movement.

Since the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July 2024, Yahya Sinwar assumed the presidency of the movement until he was killed in October of the same year in a clash with an Israeli force in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas then formed a leadership council consisting of five leading figures headed by the head of the Hamas General Shura Council, Muhammad Darwish.

Israel accused Yahya Sinwar of being the mastermind of the attack on October 7, 2023.

Two sources in Hamas confirmed that the movement's next head will take over the management of Hamas' political bureau "for a period of one year, which is an exceptional election cycle. Then the movement will organize another election for a new cycle for its Shura and leadership structures and frameworks that will last for four years."

The sources did not disclose the number of those entitled to vote within the movement or the election mechanisms in light of the most difficult security conditions for Hamas, which was subjected to severe strikes from the Israeli army during the war.

France 24/AFP

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