Khalil al-Hayya succeeds Yahya Sinwar as head of Hamas

Al-Hayya succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024. Until then, the movement had been led since Sinwar's death by a five-member body of which al-Hayya was already a member. The vote by the Shura Council, Hamas's supreme consultative body, marks the provisional conclusion of a long transitional phase.

Even when Hamas formally defers to an external government, real power can remain with the armed organization, says Palestine expert Michael Milshtein of the Moshe Dayan Center. He sees Hamas apparently emulating a model similar to that of Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Al-Hayya's rise and personal losses

The 66-year-old had most recently appeared as a negotiator in the indirect talks with Israel concerning a ceasefire in the Gaza war. According to sources within Hamas circles, he maintains good relations with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, as well as with Qatar, Egypt, Algeria and Iran. Among Palestinians he is known as Abu Osama.

Al-Hayya was reportedly a target of the Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Doha on September 9, 2025, which was aimed at hitting several Hamas leaders. According to Hamas, however, the attack failed. His son Humam was killed in the strike; earlier Israeli attacks had already killed other sons and relatives.

Considered a moderate, al-Hayya had survived several Israeli assassination attempts in recent years, during which several of his relatives were killed. In 2007, an Israeli airstrike hit his family's home in Gaza City, killing several relatives. In 2014, a bombardment of his eldest son Osama's house killed Osama's wife and three children.

In 2008, another son, Hamza, was killed in an airstrike. In total, four of al-Hayya's sons lost their lives to Israeli attacks. According to Hamas, the Doha strike failed; al-Hayya himself survived.

Since the deaths of Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, al-Hayya had become an increasingly important figure in Hamas. Haniyeh was killed in July 2024 during a visit to Tehran. After Haniyeh's death, al-Hayya was regarded as the most important representative of the Islamist movement abroad.

Transitional mandate until 2027

Al-Hayya did not complete a regular term: he will only serve out the current legislative period until regular new elections in 2027. The designated successor thus remains initially on probation — without the possibility of permanently cementing his own power structures.

Hamas's former chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, has been elected as the new leader of the radical Islamist Palestinian organization. He is considered pragmatic and conservative. In Hamas descriptions, he is classified as moderate.

Khalil al-Hayya was born in the Gaza Strip and has spent most of his life there. In the early 1980s, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood together with Haniyeh and Sinwar, out of which Hamas emerged in 1987; he is one of the organization's founding members.

Background: Who is Khalil al-Hayya?

Al-Hayya studied Islamic sciences in Jordan and Sudan: he completed his bachelor's degree in Islamic religious studies in Gaza, earned his master's at a university in Jordan, and received his doctorate from the University of the Quran and Islamic Sciences in Sudan. In 2006 he was elected as a member of the Palestinian parliament; these were the last parliamentary elections from which Hamas emerged as the strongest force.

He spent three years in an Israeli prison in the late 1990s. Before the massacres of October 7, 2023, al-Hayya left Gaza for Qatar, apparently to prepare negotiations with Israel. Al-Hayya spends most of his time in Qatar, where he lives together with other Hamas leaders.

War, ceasefire and peace plan

Hamas and its allies triggered the war in the Gaza Strip with their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. In the massacres that day, the Islamists killed 1,221 people and abducted 251 others as hostages into the Gaza Strip. Israel then launched a military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

His predecessor Sinwar was regarded as the mastermind of Hamas's major attack on Israel in October 2023. Over the course of the following two years of war, more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed according to Hamas figures. The situation for Gaza's roughly two million inhabitants remains catastrophic.

A ceasefire mediated by the United States has been in effect since October 2025, but in reality deadly attacks and confrontations continue to occur. Israel still controls more than 60 percent of the coastal territory, and the disarmament of Hamas envisioned in U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan has so far not been implemented.

At the same time, Hamas has reconsolidated its rule in the territory it controls since the ceasefire took effect. Al-Hayya reportedly held the view that October 7, 2023 was conceived as a limited operation to capture soldiers and exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians; he described the killing of Israeli civilians as great acts and a historic moment.

Looking ahead to future strategy

U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan envisages a transfer of power from Hamas. According to the plan, a "National Committee for the Administration of Gaza," composed of independent experts appointed by Trump's peace council and led by Palestinian technocrat Ali Shaath, is to take over civilian administration. Hamas, however, has so far refused to surrender its weapons.

Mashal, who previously led Hamas from 1996 to 2017 and also resides in Doha, represents a line more independent of Tehran, with close ties to Qatar and Turkey. In 1997 he narrowly survived a Mossad assassination attempt.

Last year, the Israeli air force attempted to strike the Hamas leadership in the Qatari capital Doha. According to Hamas, the attack failed. Al-Hayya is one of Hamas's founding members and has most recently stated that he favors organizing the Gaza Strip along the lines of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Al-Hayya was also a negotiator in talks over a permanent peace settlement for the Gaza Strip. His election elevates an experienced negotiator who simultaneously seeks reconciliation with Tehran and Hezbollah — a balancing act between ceasefire and the preservation of the armed wing.