Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been elected to a second term as the terror group’s political bureau chief, a source close to Hamas said on Monday. In a media statement on August 2, the Hamas said that Saleh Arouri was elected as Haniyeh's deputy, adding that "the movement has finalized its internal elections inside and outside Palestine".
Haniyeh, who was first elected in 2017, is now allegedly set to lead Hamas until 2025. He replaced Khaled Mashaal, who had led the terror group since 1996. According to Al-Quds, Hamas’s Shura Council convened on Saturday and elected Haniyeh. The Council is set to convene again on Sunday and elect Haniyeh’s deputy and the remaining members of Hamas’s political bureau.
Haniyeh, born in 1963 in a refugee camp in western Gaza city, was elected in 2017 for the first time as the movement's politburo chief after he succeeded Meshaal. Hamas' internal elections start with electing the political offices of the movement in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and abroad, and then electing the chief and the deputy chief of the movement's politburo. Hamas’s Fatah rivals normally hold festive elections that draw large crowds to public polling places.
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