Ismail Haniya re-elected as leader of Palestinian group Hamas

Haniya, Hamas chief since 2017, re-elected for four-year term following an unopposed internal election by party members.

Ismail Haniya has been re-elected as leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, officials have said, cementing his control of the organisation which rules the besieged Gaza Strip. Haniya, 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 has not said whether he will return. He directed Hamas in an 11-day conflict with Israel in May in which more than 250 people were killed in Gaza and 13 in Israel. An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire has mostly held since.