"Brother Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as the head of the movement's political office for a second time," one official says. His term will last four years.
Ismail Haniyeh has been elected to a second term as head of Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, according to two Palestinian officials.
"Brother Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as the head of the movement's political office for a second time," one official told Reuters. His term will last four years.
Haniyeh, the group's leader since 2017, has controlled its political activities throughout several armed confrontations with Israel - including an 11-day Israeli aggression in May that left over 250 in Gaza and 13 in Israel dead.
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He was the right-hand man to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, before the wheelchair-bound cleric was assassinated in 2004.
Haniyeh, 58, led Hamas' entry into politics in 2006, when they were surprise victors in Palestinian parliamentary elections, defeating a divided Fatah party led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Haniyeh became prime minister shortly after the January 2006 victory, but Hamas - which is deemed a terrorist organisation by the United States, Israel and the European Union - was shunned by the international community.
Following a brief civil war, Hamas seized Gaza from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in 2007. Israel has led a blockade of Gaza since then, citing threats from Hamas.
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