The re-election of Ismail Haniyeh, 58, is not a surprise, since he was the only known candidate. Hamas confirmed, early Monday morning, August 2, the reappointment of its leader as head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip, which has just emerged from a new war with Israel.
According to Hamas, ” tens of thousands “ members of this Islamist group, which has waged four wars in the Hebrew state since 2008, the last of which in May, took part in the internal ballot without any known opponent to Mr. Haniyeh.
Considered a pragmatist, Mr. Haniyeh, who divides his time between Qatar and Turkey, was elected head of Hamas’ political bureau in 2017, succeeding Khaled Mechaal, who had led the movement since 1996.
Supporter of reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah
After the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006, the most recent to date, Ismail Haniyeh had however already taken the head of a Palestinian government of unity. And he pledged to work for the creation of a Palestinian state “In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital”, going against the tide of the official speech of Hamas which, then, did not recognize these borders.
But Hamas and Fatah embarked on a virtual civil war in 2007 which led to the de facto division of the Palestinian Territories with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on one side, and the occupied West Bank under the Palestinian Authority cut on the other. He was then sacked in June 2007 by the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, following the violent takeover of Hamas in Gaza.
In March, Hamas had already re-elected Yahya Sinouar as head of the movement’s political bureau for the Gaza Strip alone. According to sources within the movement, five candidates were then vying for this post.
The election of the head of the entire political bureau of this movement, which has a powerful military wing and considered terrorist by the United States and the European Union, had however been postponed due to the war with Israel in May. .