The new leader of Hamas: Who is Khalil al-Hayya?
The election caps months of secretive deliberation following the deaths of a string of senior Hamas figures in Israeli strikes
Hamas announced Monday that it had elected Khalil al-Hayya, 64, the group's lead negotiator in indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, as head of its political bureau, succeeding Yahya al-Sinwar. "The Islamic Resistance Movement announces the election of brother mujahid Khalil al-Hayya as head of the movement's political bureau, succeeding the martyred leader Yahya al-Sinwar," Hamas said in a statement.
Sinwar, being a principal architect of the October 7, 2023 attacks, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in October 2024. Since then, Hamas has been led by a leadership council.
History with Hamas
A Hamas member since the group's founding in 1987, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s alongside Haniyeh and Sinwar. He left Gaza several years ago to serve as Hamas's point person for ties with the Arab and Islamic world, basing himself in Qatar, and accompanied Haniyeh to Tehran on the July 2024 visit during which Haniyeh was assassinated.
He also survived Israel's September 9 attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, which killed six people but no top Hamas officials.
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Veteran negotiator
Hayya has been closely involved in brokering several truces with Israel, playing a key role in ending the 2014 conflict and in efforts to end the current Gaza war. In 2022, he led a Hamas delegation to Damascus to mend ties with then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, repairing a decade-old breach that had strained a regional alliance built by Iran to counter Israel and the United States.
Hayya was at the heart of ceasefire talks throughout the Gaza war and took part in indirect negotiations with Israel that culminated in a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025.