Khalil Al Hayya is a veteran member of Hamas and has lost several relatives in Israeli attacks on GazaInfoAl Hayya succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza in 2024The NationalJuly 20, 2026Khalil Al Hayya has been elected as the head of Hamas's political bureau, succeeding Yahya Sinwar, the movement announced on Monday.The Palestinian group said Mr Al Hayya was chosen to lead the bureau following the death of Mr Sinwar, whom Hamas described as a "martyred leader".Yahya Sinwar was believed to have masterminded the October 7 attack on Israel in 2023, when militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted about 250. He was killed in Gaza in 2024 after a months-long manhunt by the Israeli military.Mr Sinwar had taken over the leadership of Hamas after Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a suspected Israeli attack on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guesthouse in Tehran on July 31, 2024. Mr Al Hayya is part of a five-man leadership council that has led Hamas since Mr Sinwar was killed, and is a veteran member of the Islamist group. Hailing from the Gaza Strip, he has lost several close relatives - including his eldest son - to Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory.Mr Al Hayya was at the heart of ceasefire negotiations during the Gaza war that followed the October 7 attack. He has been widely seen as the group's most influential figure abroad since Mr Haniyeh was killed. He led Hamas's negotiating team in recent talks in Egypt and Qatar to push forward US President Donald Trump's peace plan that brought about a ceasefire in October last year.He survived an Israeli air strike on Hamas's office in Doha last year in which five members of the group, including another of his sons and a Qatari officer were killed.Like Mr Sinwar, Mr Al Hayya – known as Abu Ousama – was imprisoned by Israel for three years in the early 1990s. He survived several assassination attempts attributed to Israel, one of which killed nearly 30 of his relatives, including his wife and three of his children.A founder of Hamas in the 1980s and a disciple of the group’s late spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Mr Al Hayya earned a doctorate in Islamic studies from a Sudanese university in 1997.Updated: July 20, 2026, 12:04 PM