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Hamas sources say group to be led by ruling committee not new chief

Asia

By AFP | Oct 22, 2024

**People attend a condolence ceremony for Hamas' slain leader Yahya Sinwar in the rebel-held town of Atme in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on October 19, 2024.** [AFP]

Two Hamas sources said the Palestinian militant group was moving towards appointing a Doha-based ruling committee rather than a single successor to its chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli troops last week.

"The Hamas leadership's approach is not to appoint a successor to the late chief, the martyr Yahya Sinwar, until their next elections" scheduled for March "if conditions permit", a well-informed source from the group told AFP.

A five-member committee that was formed in August following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran "will take over the leadership of the group", the source added.

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The committee was formed to facilitate decision-making in view of the difficulty of communicating with Sinwar in Gaza before his death.

Sinwar was named the Gaza chief of the militant group in 2017, before rising to become the overall leader of Hamas after Haniyeh was assassinated in July.

The source said the committee is made up of representatives of the two Palestinian territories and the diaspora, namely Khalil al-Hayya for Gaza, Zaher Jabarin for the West Bank and Khaled Meshaal for Palestinians abroad.

It also includes the head of Hamas's Shura advisory council Mohammed Darwish and the secretary of the political bureau, who is never identified for security reasons.

All current members of the committee are based in Qatar.

According to the source, the committee is tasked with "governing the movement during the war and exceptional circumstances, as well as its future plans".

He added that it is authorised to "make strategic decisions".

Another source from the group said that the Hamas leadership discussed a proposal that was made "internally" to appoint a political chief without announcing their name.

But, the source added, the leaders preferred to rule through the committee.

Sinwar was killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza on Wednesday, more than a year into the devastating war in the territory sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack.