The Times of Israel reports: Hamas’s former chief in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, has been elected to lead the Palestinian terror group, succeeding Khaled Mashaal, the organization announced Saturday.
Mashaal, who lives in exile in Qatar, has completed the maximum two terms in office. He became the leader of Hamas in 2004 following the Israeli assassinations of Hamas founders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. “The Hamas Shura Council on Saturday elected Ismail Haniyeh as head of the movement’s political bureau,” the group’s official website announced.
Hamas rules the Gaza Strip while the Palestinian Authority, dominated by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, controls the West Bank.
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