Khalil al-Hayya, a prominent Hamas leader who survived an Israeli raid in Qatar last September and is considered to have strong connections with Iran, was officially appointed as the overall head of the Palestinian organization on Monday.
Hayya, who lost a son in the Gaza conflict and two others in previous wars, has been residing with other Hamas leaders in Doha. His influence within the group has grown as several top Hamas officials, including Ismail Haniyeh during his visit to Iran and Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, have been killed by Israeli strikes.
Throughout the Gaza war that began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Hayya played a central role in ceasefire negotiations. These talks, which were mostly indirect and facilitated by the United States, resulted in a ceasefire in October 2025 that ended major hostilities in Gaza. Despite this, Israel has continued its strikes against Hamas and other groups it claims pose an immediate threat.
Hayya, 64 years old, has become regarded as the most influential Hamas figure abroad, especially following Haniyeh’s death in Iran in July 2024. He is part of a five-member leadership council based in Qatar, which has led the organization since Sinwar was martyred last year. Originally from Gaza, Hayya is a seasoned member of Hamas and maintains close ties to Iran. He has been actively involved in multiple efforts to broker ceasefires with Israel, including ending the 2014 conflict and trying to halt the current Gaza violence.
Since Hamas’s founding in 1987, Hayya has been a key member. In the early 1980s, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood alongside Haniyeh and Sinwar. His history with Israel includes multiple detentions, and in 2007, an Israeli airstrike targeted his family home in Gaza, killing several relatives. His son Hamza was also killed by an Israeli strike in 2008. During the 2014 Gaza war, Hayya’s eldest son Osama’s house was bombed, killing him, his wife, and their three children.
Hayya has spent time outside Gaza, serving as Hamas’s liaison to the Arab and Islamic worlds, and has been based in Qatar. He accompanied Haniyeh on a trip to Tehran in July, during which Haniyeh was martyred. Hayya has publicly stated that the October 7 attack was intended as a limited operation to seize soldiers for a hostage exchange, but he claims the Israeli military “completely collapsed.” He believes this attack has reignited the international focus on the Palestinian cause.
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel, over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli response, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Besides engaging in mediated negotiations for a ceasefire, Hayya has carried out significant political activities for Hamas, including a 2022 mission to Syria to repair diplomatic ties with Bashar al-Assad, which had been strained after Hamas endorsed the uprising against Assad a decade earlier. This reconciliation was crucial in restoring a regional alliance formed by Iran to oppose Israel and the United States.