Terrorist group Hamas leadership reelects political chief Mashaal.(TOI).haled Mashaal was reelected as the political chief of Hamas on Sunday night, according to British and Palestinian media reports on Monday.
The vote, taken in Cairo among the top leadership of the Gaza-based terrorist organization, was unanimous, reported Sky News in Arabic. The BBC in Arabic also cited an unconfirmed report from a senior Hamas source, saying that the vote was over.
The decision to reelect Mashaal was met with thunderous applause in the Shura Council, the group’s decision-making body, according to sources cited by the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.
Hamas did not officially confirm the reports, and several media outlets in Egypt and the Gaza Strip indicated Monday that the election hadn’t yet taken place.
Unnamed sources told the Turkish news agency Anadolu on Sunday that Mashaal had arrived in Cairo from Qatar, and that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had arrived from Gaza. Other members of the Shura Council also reportedly arrived in Cairo Saturday from across the Arab world to take part in the vote.
The election of Hamas’s highest political position had been postponed numerous times since last April amid rumors that regional players were pressuring Mashaal to stay on for another term, despite his wish to retire.
The sources told Anadolu that the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian regime, Qatar and Turkey would all like to see Mashaal remain in office given “the complicated and dangerous situation the movement faces.”
Other candidates included Mashaal’s Cairo-based deputy Moussa Abu-Marzouq, as well as Haniyeh. Hamas elects its political leadership every four years — from the regional command to the leadership of the political bureau — under a shroud of secrecy. Voters must belong to three regions; Gaza, the West Bank and “the diaspora.”Read the full story here.
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