Hamas in Gaza has completed an internal voting process to select a new head for the terrorist organization’s general political bureau, but the winner has not yet been announced, according to a report from Qatari outlet Al-Araby.
Hamas’s branches in the West Bank and abroad are expected to complete their voting processes soon and announce a winner next week, Al-Araby stated.
The competition is between two candidates. Khalil al-Hayya, the current interim head of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza who boasts strong ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is running against Khaled Mashaal, a senior Hamas official with closer ties to Turkey and other Arab nations.
Hamas’s election process was stalled twice: once in January and once in February, due to internal disputes and the precarious security situation, before being rescheduled at the end of April.
The position of head of Hamas’s general political bureau has been vacant since the previous head and mastermind of the October 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar, was killed in October 2024.
The election will be limited to selecting a new head of the general political bureau, relegating the current leadership council to a mere advisory body.
According to a separate report in the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, two Hamas sources confirmed on Wednesday that the terrorist group has resumed the selection process.
A source within the Gaza Strip told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the conditions that delayed the elections have been resolved.”
According to the report, Hamas is facing its deepest organizational and financial crisis since its establishment in 1987, having received heavy blows from Israel after launching the October 7 massacre.
Support for Hamas in Gaza waning
A new survey by Khalil Shekaki's Palestinian Polling Station, conducted in April, provides a glimpse into the mood on the Palestinian side in both the West Bank and Gaza.
While the results may potentially be biased, they reveal a fundamental gap between the sentiment in the West Bank and in Gaza, and a gap in public opinion between those who want to continue fighting Israel and those who just want to continue in their normal, daily life.
At the height of the Israel-Hamas war in December 2023, around 70% of Gazans wanted to see Hamas remain in power. More recent data paints a different picture.
According to the survey, the most popular leadership option among Gazans is establishing a government composed of experts and technocrats, with 42% of respondents supporting it. Hamas is the second most popular, with 31% support, a significant decrease compared to the height of the war.
The Palestinian Authority, in its current form, was less popular, with only 18% of the vote.
In the West Bank, however, ongoing support for Hamas is much higher, at 54%. This gap may indicate a difference between those who experienced the results of the war in Gaza up close and those who watched it from afar.