Hamas selects its new leader

Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, the capital of Iran, on July 31. Following a funeral ceremony held yesterday at the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque in Doha, Qatar, Haniyeh's body was laid to rest in a cemetery in the city of Lusail, 15 kilometers north of Doha. Acting Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashal hosted the funeral ceremony.

Following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas announced that it has launched a comprehensive consultation process to select its new leader. In the public eye, the name of Khaled Mashal is emerging as the new leader. Haniyeh had been elected as the Political Bureau Chief by the Hamas Shura Council on May 6, 2017, succeeding Khaled Mashal.

WHO IS KHALED MASHAL?

Khaled Mashal was born in the village of Silwad, north of the Ramallah city in the West Bank. He studied physics at Kuwait University. During his student years, he served as a student leader against the Palestine Liberation Organization and founded the Islamic Right Bloc, which competed with Fatah.

In 1983, he attended a meeting supporting the establishment of the Palestinian Islamic movement. Following the founding of Hamas in 1987, he took on the role of its representative in Kuwait. He moved from Kuwait to Jordan in 1991 and survived an assassination attempt orchestrated by Israel in September 1997.

After Jordan expelled the Hamas leadership from the country, he moved to Damascus. In 2012, he left Damascus for Qatar and has visited Turkey at various times to give speeches on the Palestinian cause.

Following the killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin by Israel in 2004, it was announced that Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi had chosen Mashal as his successor.