Who is Hamas’ new leader Khalil Al-Hayya?

Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official who survived an Israeli raid on Qatar in September last year and who is seen as having good ties with Iran, was named on Monday as the overall leader of the Palestinian group.

Hayya, who lost a son in the Gaza conflict and two sons in previous wars, has been based with other Hamas leaders in Doha.

He has become increasingly influential in the group as other top Hamas officials have been martyred in Israeli strikes, among them Ismail Haniyeh on a visit to Iran and Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip.

Hayya was at the heart of ceasefire talks throughout the Gaza war that erupted when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, prompting a sweeping Israeli offensive that has flattened much of the enclave since then.

He took part in indirect talks with Israel that culminated in a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025 that halted major fighting in Gaza, although Israel has continued attacks on Hamas and other groups who it says pose an imminent threat.

Seen as group’s most influential figure abroad

An earlier ceasefire initiative had been on the agenda for discussion between the 64-year-old and other Hamas leaders when they were targeted in Israel’s September 9 attack on Doha.

Hayya, widely seen as the group’s most influential figure abroad since Haniyeh was martyred by Israel in Iran in July 2024, is part of a five-man leadership council based in Qatar that has led Hamas since Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 2023 attacks, was martyred last year.

Hailing from the Gaza Strip, Hayya is a veteran member of the group. Regarded as having good ties with Iran, he has been closely involved in the group’s efforts to broker several truces with Israel, playing a key role in ending a 2014 conflict and again in attempts to secure an end to the current Gaza war.

Hayya has been part of Hamas since it was set up in 1987. In the early 1980s, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, along with Haniyeh and Sinwar, Hamas sources say.

In Gaza, he was detained several times by Israel.

In 2007, an Israeli airstrike hit his family home in Gaza City’s Shejaia quarter, martyring several relatives. In 2008, his son Hamza was martyred by an Israeli airstrike.

In the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel, the house of Hayya’s eldest son Osama was bombed, martyring him, his wife and three of their children.

Ties with Iran, talks with Syria

Hayya left Gaza several years ago, serving as a Hamas point person for ties with the Arab and Islamic worlds and basing himself in Qatar. He accompanied Haniyeh to Tehran for the visit in July during which Haniyeh was martyred.

He has been cited as saying the October 7 attacks had been meant as a limited operation by Hamas to capture “a number of soldiers” to swap for jailed Palestinians.

“But the Zionist army unit completely collapsed,” he said in comments published by the Palestinian Information Center, referring to Israel’s military.

He has said the attack succeeded in bringing the Palestinian issue back into international focus.

More than 67,000 Palestinians have been martyred in Israel’s offensive in Gaza since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Alongside leading Hamas delegations in mediated talks to try to secure a ceasefire, Hayya has performed a range of other high-profile political work for the group.

In 2022, he led a Hamas team to Damascus to mend ties with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, broken a decade earlier when the movement endorsed the uprising against Assad.

The breach had strained a regional alliance built by Iran to counter Israel and the United States.