The leadership of the Palestinian movement Hamas is considering the possibility of appointing Khalil Al - Heyya for the new head of the organization's Politburo, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported, citing sources from the movement.
As the publication notes, after the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, the leadership of the movement is carried out collectively. At the same time, the newspaper's sources confirmed that Al-Hayya will become the new head of the Hamas Politburo, if conditions are created to elect a leader of the movement. At the same time, the election of a new Hamas leader could happen at any time, but his identity will not be officially revealed.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Hayya heads the Hamas Politburo branch in the Gaza Strip and is involved in key areas of the movement's politics, including heading the group of negotiators at the Gaza ceasefire consultations, and also responsible for contacts with Fatah regarding the future governance of the Palestinian enclave.
Interlocutors of the publication note that there is a consensus in the leadership of the movement that the Politburo of Hamas should be headed by a prominent figure in the movement from the Gaza Strip, and not from the West Bank or other representatives of the organization. This approach is due to the need to show loyalty to the supporters of the movement in the Gaza Strip amid the conflict.
Other sources of Asharq Al-Awsat clarified that the appointment of Al-Hayya as the leader of Hamas will be the culmination of the last election cycle held in July 2021, when Sinwar was elected as the head of the Politburo in the Strip Gaza. The newspaper recalled that in October 2022, Heya visited Syria, accompanied by representatives of Palestinian groups, and met with the president of the Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad. It was the first visit by a senior Hamas official to Syria since 2012, when the movement's leadership was forced to move its headquarters from Damascus to Doha.