A Look at Hamas’s Leadership Following Sinwar’s Death

Here Is the Remaining Leadership of Hamas

Top figures in the Palestinian militant group have long been targeted by Israel.

• Share full article

By John Yoon and Aaron Boxerman

The death of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed on Wednesday by Israeli forces in Gaza, deals a significant blow to the militant organization.

Israel has made eliminating Hamas’s leadership an aim of the war in Gaza, and it considered Mr. Sinwar one of its biggest targets. Long considered by Israel and the United States as the planner of Hamas’s military strategy in Gaza, Mr. Sinwar also took on the role of the organization’s political chief two months ago, after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

For months, Mr. Sinwar had evaded the sort of Israeli efforts to find and kill him that have led to the deaths of other senior officials in Hamas, including Mr. Haniyeh.

Hamas’s leadership structure is opaque, but here is what is known about some of Hamas’s most prominent figures who are still believed to be alive or whose fate is unclear:

Khaled Meshal, a former political head of Hamas

Born near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mr. Meshal became the leader of Hamas’s political office in 1996, directing the group from exile. Two years later, Israeli agents injected him with a slow-acting poison in Jordan, sending him into a coma before he was saved by an antidote provided by Israel as part of a diplomatic deal with Jordan.

Mr. Meshal spent his career moving from one Arab nation to another, living in Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Syria. When he stepped down as head of the political office, he was succeeded in 2017 by Mr. Haniyeh. Mr. Meshal remains an influential official in the group.

Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy leader of Hamas in Gaza

Mr. al-Hayya, who now lives in exile in Qatar, has been a Hamas official for decades and was Mr. Sinwar’s deputy. He survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2007, when an airstrike on his home in Gaza killed members of his family while he was not there.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’s top political bureau

One of Hamas’s founders, Mr. Abu Marzouk started his political career in the United Arab Emirates, where he helped found a branch of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas was formed, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations.

He later went to the United States, where he helped found Islamic institutions, including those focused on the Palestinian cause. In 1996, when he headed Hamas’s political bureau, he faced Israeli charges of financing and helping organize terrorist attacks. After 22 months spent in a Manhattan jail on suspicion of terrorism, he agreed to relinquish his permanent resident status in the United States and said he would not contest the terrorism accusations that led to his detention. The United States then deported him to Jordan.

Our Coverage of the Middle East Crisis

• Hunger in Gaza: The U.N. has warned of the risk of famine for some 400,000 civilians in northern Gaza amid a renewed Israeli offensive in the enclave. Families say they are rationing what little food they can find.
• U.S. Attack on Houthis: The U.S. military struck five underground weapons facilities in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, using warplanes that included B-2 stealth bombers.
• Human Shields: A Times investigation found that Israeli soldiers and intelligence agents have regularly forced captured Palestinians to conduct life-threatening reconnaissance missions to avoid putting Israeli soldiers at risk.
• Strikes in Lebanon: Israel bombed the densely populated southern outskirts of Beirut for the first time in days and also struck a southern Lebanese city where local officials were meeting, killing at least 16 people, including the mayor.
• Lebanon’s Hospitals Buckle: The U.N. says “the targeting of health and relief operations is broadening” in Lebanon. Hospitals say they have been forced to close or are struggling to operate.