Hamas ‘to be led by ruling committee based in Doha’

Hamas is moving towards appointing a Doha-based ruling committee rather than one successor to assassinated chief Yahya Sinwar, sources say.

“The Hamas leadership’s approach is not to appoint a successor to the late chief, the martyr Yahya Sinwar, until their next elections,” a well-informed source said.

Sinwar was killed last week in an encounter with Israeli Defence Forces, with his last moments caught on video by a drone that entered the building in which he was hiding.

Hamas elections are scheduled for March “if conditions permit”, sources said.

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

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.

Before his death, he told the group that in the event he was killed, Hamas should be ruled by a committee, the Wall St Journal reports.

Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy and the group’s most senior official outside Gaza, is a strong candidate to take over in March, but in the meantime will serve on the committee, sources told the BBC.

Hayya is a lead negotiator for Hamas in ceasefire talks between the group and Israel. He will be joined on the committee by Zaher Jabarin, who represents Hamas for the West Bank, and Khaled Meshaal for Palestinians abroad.

Meshaal, another strong contender for eventual leadership, is seen as a moderate.

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

All current members of the committee are based in Qatar.

The source said the committee was 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”.