Hamas announces Khalil al-Hayya as the new head of its political bureau and successor to Yahya Sinwar.

Hamas announced that Khalil al-Hayya has been selected as the new head of the political bureau of the group and the successor to Yahya Sinwar.

Al-Hayya has been out of the Gaza Strip for years and is based in Doha with other Hamas leaders. Since the start of the Gaza war, he has headed Hamas’s negotiating delegation, and, according to a Reuters report, after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024, he is considered the most influential figure of the movement outside Palestine.

He was the main target in Israel’s attack on Doha on September 9, 2025, but survived. In that attack, his son, Hamam, his office manager Jihad Labbad, three guards, and a Qatari serviceman were killed. This was the first recognized Israeli military action on Qatari soil.

Hamas has been classified by the United States and Israel as a terrorist group.

After Haniyeh was killed and then Sinwar, Hamas was run through a five-member leadership council based in Qatar, of which Al-Hayya was one of the members.