CAIRO: Hamas has named Khalil Al-Hayya as its general chief, in keeping with an announcement from the Palestinian militant group on Monday (Jul 20), in a transfer an analyst says may sign a more durable stance by the group in the direction of disarmament calls.
Hayya replaces Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in fight with Israeli forces in October 2024 as Hamas fought a full-scale, two-year struggle with Israel within the Gaza Strip.
Hayya, the group’s exiled Gaza chief and high negotiator, has change into an more and more central determine within the management of Hamas for the reason that deaths of Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran in July 2024.
He’s seen as extra hardline than Khaled Meshaal, the top of the group’s workplace in exile and the opposite frontrunner for the management.
Hayya was amongst high Hamas officers focused in 2025 in an Israeli assault in Doha, the place he’s based mostly, Israeli officers informed Reuters.
The militant group faces among the hardest challenges because it was based in 1987, battered by two years of struggle ignited by its Oct 7, 2023 assault on Israel and dealing with worldwide calls for to disarm.
Whereas preventing has abated in Gaza for the reason that US-brokered ceasefire in October, Israel nonetheless holds greater than 60 per cent of the coastal enclave, assaults proceed, and situations for Gaza’s 2 million folks stay dire.
Israel says it targets Hamas and different Gaza militants who pose an imminent risk. The workplace of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not instantly touch upon Hayya’s choice.
On Monday, an Israeli strike killed not less than two Palestinians driving in a car in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medics mentioned. The Israeli navy did not instantly remark.
The deaths add to a toll of greater than 1,150 Palestinians, largely civilians, killed by Israeli assaults for the reason that October ceasefire, in keeping with Gaza well being officers. 4 Israeli troopers had been killed by militants in Gaza over the identical interval.
Hamas doesn’t often disclose its losses.
