GAZA CITY (Dispatches) -- Hamas named Khalil al-Hayya – its top negotiator and chief member of the political bureau – as overall head of the Palestinian resistance movement, according to a statement released by the group on Monday.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announces the election of the brother, leader, and mujahid Khalil al-Hayya as the head of the movement through an institutional consultative (shura) process,” Hamas’s statement said. 
This came after the “conclusion of an internal electoral process in which representatives from all arenas of the movement participated – including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israeli prisons, and Palestinians abroad.”
The statement also congratulated Hayya on his appointment – which makes him the successor to the late Yahya Sinwar, former Hamas chief martyred in Gaza in October 2024.
Hamas went on to say that it “bows in reverence before our people in the Gaza Strip, who confronted the war of genocide with their lives, bodies, homes, and possessions, transforming their suffering into a beacon for free people everywhere and teaching humanity, once again, the meaning of steadfastness and dignity.”
It also hailed all its “fallen leaders” who were killed throughout the genocide that began on October 7, 2023 and remains ongoing despite a so-called US ceasefire plan. 
This included Sinwar, Muhammad Deif, and Saleh al-Arouri, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel while visiting Tehran in late July 2024. 
Sinwar, whom Hayya is succeeding, was one of the architects of October 2023’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 
After the genocide began, Sinwar remained on the ground overseeing battle operations and coordinating with commanders and fighters of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. 
Sinwar was martyred in a clash with Israeli occupation troops in southern Gaza in October 2024. 
An Israeli camera-equipped drone captured the resistance leader’s final moments, where he was seen wounded following the clash. 
In the video – which has since made him an icon – despite being gravely injured, Sinwar throws a stick at the Israeli drone filming him, in what many described at the time as a “final act of defiance” against occupation and genocide. 
Hayya’s election as Hamas chief comes as a U.S.-backed ‘peace plan’ continues to fail in ending Israel’s genocide. 
Deadly attacks have hit the strip every day since Washington’s October 2025 ‘peace’ initiative was launched. Over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since then, and about 70 percent of Gaza has been occupied.