Iranians walk past a portrait of slain Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, at Palestine Square in Tehran on Oct.19, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
Hamas, whose leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by the Israeli army, will be temporarily led by a committee based in Qatar until a successor is elected, according to two sources within the Palestinian movement on Monday.
"The approach of Hamas leadership is not to appoint a successor to the late martyr Yahya Sinwar before the upcoming elections" of the Palestinian movement scheduled for March "if conditions allow," a Hamas source told AFP.
Yahya Sinwar, who became the leader of Hamas after Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July, was declared dead on Thursday by the Israeli army, which killed him in the southern Gaza Strip, where war has been raging for a year.
The five-member committee formed in August after Haniyeh's assassination to facilitate decision-making given the communication difficulties with Sinwar in Gaza "will lead the group," the source said.
This committee, based in Doha, consists of representatives from Gaza (Khalil al-Haya), the Israeli-occupied West Bank (Zaher Jabareen), and the diaspora (Khaled Mechaal), along with a member of Hamas's Shura advisory council (Mohammed Darwish) and the secretary of the political bureau, who remains anonymous for security reasons, the source added.
Another Hamas source stated that the group's leadership discussed the possibility of appointing a political leader without announcing the name, an option that was ultimately dismissed.
