Khalil Al-Hayya: We will end our consultations to choose a new leader for Hamas within days

Deputy Chairman of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, said on Sunday that the movement will end within days its consultations to choose a new leader, to succeed the head of the Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, at dawn on Wednesday. This came during Al-Hayya’s speech at Haniyeh’s funeral in the Qatari capital, Doha, and was broadcast by Hamas via the “Telegram” platform.

Khalil Al-Hayya added: “Do not worry about Hamas. We have left a leader, but the movement is managed through our institutions, so there is no vacuum with the martyrdom of the leader.” Al-Hayya continued: “We are a unified leadership, thanks to God. We hold our meetings and manage our work with all responsibility, and it is only a matter of days before we finish our consultations to choose a new leader for this movement, to follow the path of Ismail (Haniyeh), and continue on the path of Sheikh (Ahmed Yassin, founder of the movement), and continue on the path of The path of the martyrs of our Palestinian people.

On Saturday, the Hamas movement announced, in a statement, that its leaders had begun a broad consultation process in its leadership and Shura institutions to choose a new head of the movement’s political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. On Wednesday, Hamas and Iran announced the assassination of Haniyeh by an “Israeli air strike” that targeted his residence in Tehran, the day after his participation in the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

At the end of the week, a series of discussions and consultations took place in Israel at the political and security levels in preparation for the possible response of Iran and Hezbollah to the two assassinations of Haniyeh in Tehran and Shukr in the southern suburb of Beirut. Yedioth Ahronoth said, "The working assumption in Israel is that a joint or separate attack is inevitable, but there is still uncertainty about its timing and scope."

The New York Times, in a report published on Sunday, downplayed the effectiveness of the assassinations carried out against Hamas leaders, including the assassination of Haniyeh, noting that the history of the movement and the development of the armed Palestinian factions over decades confirms that Hamas will not only survive, but will emerge. Of the bloodiest war against the Palestinians, it is politically stronger.

A number of regional analysts and experts believe that the recent strikes on the Hamas movement, including the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, bring the Israeli occupation forces a short-term victory at the expense of long-term strategic success, as the prominent Palestinian analyst at the International Crisis Group, Tahani Mustafa, said during an interview with The newspaper said that Israel presented Hamas with a winning card after it hoped that military pressure would push the population in the Gaza Strip to move away from Hamas, but the recent strikes will have an effect completely opposite to what Israel wants.

The ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October has led to the displacement of more than 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip, in addition to massive destruction of infrastructure, extremely difficult humanitarian conditions, and the martyrdom of more than 39,000 Palestinians.

Despite this, the New York Times says that the movement is still recruiting new fighters in Gaza and outside it, and its militants have begun to leave the areas from which the occupation forces withdrew. According to the newspaper, simply surviving in the face of a more powerful army gives Hamas a major symbolic victory, according to the logic of the rebellion.

(Anatolia, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed)