Hamas to be led by ruling committee, no chief to succeed Sinwar

File photo of Khaled Meshaal, who is on the Hamas ruling committee. Photo courtesy: Reuters

The Palestinian militant group is moving toward appointing a Doha-based ruling committee instead of a successor to its chief, two Hamas sources said. Yahya SinwarWho was it killed by israeli soldiers Last week.

“The approach of the Hamas leadership is not to appoint a successor to the late chief, Martyr Yahya Sinwar, until their next elections, scheduled for March, “if conditions permit,” a source familiar with the group said. AFP,

After this, a five-member committee was formed in August. Murder of political chief Ismail Haniyeh He “will take over the leadership of the group” in Tehran, the source said.

The committee was formed to facilitate decision-making given the difficulty of communication with Sinwar in Gaza before his death.

Sinwar succeeded Haniyeh

Sinwar was named the militant group’s Gaza chief in 2017, before becoming overall leader of Hamas following the killing of Haniyeh in July.

The source said the committee is composed of representatives from the two Palestinian territories and the diaspora, namely Khalil al-Haya for Gaza, Zaher Jabarin for the West Bank and Khaled Meshaal for Palestinians abroad.

It also includes Mohammed Darwish, the head of Hamas’s Shura Advisory Council and the secretary of the political bureau, who has never been identified for security reasons.

All current members of the committee are based in Qatar.

According to the source, the committee is tasked with “controlling the movement during war and extraordinary circumstances as well as its future plans.”

He said it is authorized to take “strategic decisions”.

Another source in the group said the Hamas leadership discussed a proposal that was made “internally” to appoint a political head without announcing his name.

But, the source said, leaders preferred to rule through committee.

Sinwar was killed by Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza on Wednesday, more than a year after a devastating war in the region sparked by an October 7 attack by Hamas.