Hamas names Khalil Al-Hayya as new overall leader

Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official with significant ties to Iran, has been appointed the overall leader of the Palestinian group. Al-Hayya, who survived an Israeli raid in Qatar last September, has become increasingly influential as other top Hamas leaders have been killed.

Based in Doha, Al-Hayya has lost a son in the current Gaza conflict and two sons in previous wars. He was central to ceasefire negotiations throughout the Gaza war that began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. He participated in indirect talks that led to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, though sporadic attacks have continued.

Al-Hayya, 64, is considered the group's most influential figure abroad since Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran in July 2024. He is part of a five-man leadership council in Qatar that has guided Hamas since Yahya al-Sinwar, the architect of the October 2023 attacks, was killed last year. Hailing from Gaza, Al-Hayya is a veteran member who joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s, the precursor to Hamas.

Regarded as having good relations with Iran, a crucial supplier of arms and funding for Hamas, Al-Hayya has been deeply involved in brokering truces with Israel. He played a key role in ending a 2014 conflict and in subsequent attempts to secure a cessation of hostilities in the current Gaza war. He left Gaza several years ago to manage Hamas's ties with the Arab and Islamic worlds from Qatar.

Al-Hayya once stated that the October 7 attacks were intended as a limited operation to capture Israeli soldiers for a prisoner exchange. However, he noted that the Israeli army unit involved "completely collapsed."

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But the Zionist army unit completely collapsed.