GAZA — Ismail Haniyeh has been re-elected as
leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, officials said on Sunday,
cementing his control of the organization which rules the
Gaza Strip and has
fought multiple violent conflicts with
Israel.
اضافة اعلان
Haniyeh, Hamas chief since 2017, has controlled the group's
political activities in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the diaspora
largely from outside Gaza, splitting his time between Turkey and Qatar for the
past two years.
He directed Hamas in an 11-day conflict with Israel in May
that left over 250 in Gaza and 13 in Israel dead. An Egyptian-mediated
ceasefire has mostly held since.
"Brother Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as the head of
the movement's political office for a second time," one Palestinian
official told Reuters following an internal election by party members. His term
will last four years.
Aged 58, Haniyeh was the right-hand man to Hamas founder
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, before the wheelchair-bound cleric was
assassinated in 2004.
Haniyeh led Hamas' entry into politics in 2006, when they
were surprise victors in Palestinian parliamentary elections, defeating a
divided Fatah party led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
He became prime minister shortly after the January 2006
victory, but Hamas — which is deemed a terrorist organization by the United
States, Israel and the
European Union — was shunned by the international
community.
Following a brief civil war, Hamas seized Gaza from the
Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, in 2007. Israel has led a blockade of Gaza since
then, citing threats from Hamas.
Haniyeh's victory caps internal elections that also saw the
group's Gaza chief, Yehya Al-Sinwar, win a second term in March.
Further votes were delayed by May's upsurge in violence.
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