Hamas elects Khalil Al-Hayya as overall leader to replace Yahya Sinwar

Hamas elected Khalil Al-Hayya as its overall leader on July 20, 2026, through a vote by its 50-member council drawn from Gaza, the occupied West Bank including Israeli prisons, and exile. The move ended the group's use of a five-member higher council that had guided operations since Yahya Sinwar's death in combat with Israeli forces in October 2024.

Al-Hayya, the exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator based in Doha, had already served on that interim body.

The process began in January and faced interruptions from conflicts in Iran and Lebanon along with Israeli operations in Gaza. Al-Hayya had been among top Hamas officials targeted in an Israeli attack in Doha in 2025, Israeli officials told Reuters.

Ismail Haniyeh, another former leader, was killed in Iran in July 2024, Al-Monitor reported. Hamas was founded in 1987 and carried out an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. A ceasefire took effect in Gaza in October 2025.

Israel holds more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip as of July 20, 2026. On that date an Israeli strike killed at least three Palestinians driving in a vehicle in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medics said. The Israeli military stated it struck a militant in the area.

More than 1,150 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire, according to Gaza health officials. Four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.

Palestinian political analyst Reham Owda said Al-Hayya's selection signals that Hamas remains committed to armed struggle and rejects disarmament under any conditions. "This indicates that negotiations related to disarmament are likely to face significant difficulties and obstacles," Owda told Reuters.