{"id":12025,"date":"2026-07-21T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12025"},"modified":"2026-07-21T00:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:00:30","slug":"hamas-elects-khalil-al-hayya-as-new-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12025","title":{"rendered":"Hamas elects Khalil al-Hayya as new leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 20 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Hamas\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Hamas\" class=\"tpstyle\">Hamas<\/a> announced Monday that it has elected Khalil al-Hayya as its new leader nearly two years after its previous leader was killed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Khaled_Meshal\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Khaled Meshal\" class=\"tpstyle\">Khaled Meshal<\/a>, a former Hamas leader, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cx25nzkyj50o\" target=\"_blank\">contended with<\/a> al-Hayya for the role. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas&#8217; last overall leader, was killed by the Israeli military in 2024, leaving the top leadership position vacant for nearly two years.\n<\/p>\n<p>The 65-year-old al-Hayya was a deputy for Sinwar when he led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He has since served as Hamas&#8217; chief negotiator.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Hayya has been a key figure in Hamas&#8217; negotiations for a cease-fire with Israel, meeting with mediators in Egypt and Qatar for indirect talks with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, al-Hayya <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/20\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-talks-khalil-al-hayya-leader.html\" target=\"_blank\">survived an Israeli airstrike<\/a> that killed five other Hamas leaders, including one of his sons.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Hayya has remained involved in negotiations despite leaving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Gaza\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Gaza\" class=\"tpstyle\">Gaza<\/a> before the war with Israel and living in exile. He has called for the end of the war and the release of Israeli hostages.<\/p>\n<p>Hamas has remained without a top political leader since 2024. Sinwar&#8217;s predecessor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Ismail_Haniyeh\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Ismail Haniyeh\" class=\"tpstyle\">Ismail Haniyeh<\/a> was assassinated by Israeli forces in 2024 while in Tehran, Iran. Sinwar served as the group&#8217;s political leader for a short time after Haniyeh&#8217;s death before being killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"slide-image-container\" onclick=\"st_ss_sh456();\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/collection\/ph\/upi\/15909\/2a9703e41529bdf0ef61240afd86cdf8\/Palestinian-detainees-return-home_1_1.jpg\" style=\"width: 100%;\" width=\"648\" height=\"431\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"stph_caption\">Relatives interact with Palestinian detainees that were released as part of the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas at the Ramallah Cultural Centre in Ramallah, in the West Bank, on October 13, 2025. Photo by Ismael Ahmad\/UPI | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/News_Photos\/lp\/2a9703e41529bdf0ef61240afd86cdf8\/\" target=\"_blank\">License Photo<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 20 (UPI) &#8212; Hamas announced Monday that it has elected Khalil al-Hayya as its new leader nearly two years after its previous leader was killed. Khaled Meshal, a former Hamas leader, contended with al-Hayya for the role. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas&#8217; last overall leader, was killed by the Israeli military in 2024, leaving the top&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi\/2881784571996\/2026\/1\/94b306a872cfbb3fd950ae22ac0cf045\/v1.5\/Hamas-elects-Khalil-al-Hayya-as-new-leader.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}