The Hamas terrorist organization is nearing the final stage of selecting a new leader, with two key figures, Khaled Mashaal and Khalil al-Hayya, competing for the position, a senior Hamas official revealed to AFP on Sunday.
The group has completed internal elections for its three branches, and the new leader will soon be chosen to head its political bureau.
According to the senior Hamas official, the organization recently finished forming a new Shura Council, which consists of more than 80 members, primarily made up of religious scholars. Additionally, Hamas established a new 18-member political bureau, setting the stage for the leadership selection process.
The Shura Council, elected every four years by representatives from Hamas’s branches in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and its external leadership, will elect the political bureau. The political bureau will then select the head of the movement. Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote in the council elections.
The leadership race now centers around Mashaal, who previously led the political bureau from 2004 to 2017, and Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator for ceasefire talks in Gaza. Despite their long-standing roles within Hamas, the competition between the two remains intense.
In addition to its internal elections, Hamas has been dealing with the US-brokered ceasefire that entered its second phase last month.
Hamas has repeatedly refused to disarm, even though Trump’s 20-point peace plan stipulates that the terrorist group lay down its weapons. Hamas claims its weapons are used for “self-defense against the occupation."
Mashaal recently reaffirmed the terrorist group’s refusal to comply with Trump’s call to lay down arms, saying, “As long as our people are under occupation, talk of disarmament is an attempt to turn our people into victims, to make their elimination easier and to facilitate their destruction at the hands of the Israeli side, which is armed with every international means of warfare."