Hamas seeks to rebuild shattered leadership as it faces postwar uncertainty |
Hamas is preparing to hold internal elections to rebuild its leadership, decimated by Israel during the war in Gaza, which it sparked by carrying out the October 7, 2023, massacre, sources in the terror group told AFP on Monday.
With international powers and Israel pushing for it to be disarmed and have no role in Gaza’s future governance, its new leaders will face an uncertain future.
The terror group also rules over a territory devastated by two years of war, with its more than two million residents facing harsh humanitarian conditions, and Israeli troops still deployed in about half of the Strip.
“Internal preparations are still ongoing in order to hold the elections at the appropriate time in areas where conditions on the ground allow it,” a Hamas leader told AFP on Monday.
The vote is expected to take place “in the first months of 2026.”
The leadership renewal process includes the formation of a new 50-member Shura Council, a consultative body dominated by religious figures.
Its members are selected every four years by Hamas’s three branches: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the movement’s external leadership.
Hamas prisoners in Israeli prisons are also eligible to vote.
That council is responsible, also every four years, for electing the 18-member political bureau and its chief, who serves as Hamas’s overall leader.
Another Hamas source close to the process said the timing of the political bureau elections remains uncertain, “given the circumstances our people........