Yehya al-Sinwar elected head of Hamas political bureau in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya his deputy

Yahya Al-Sinwar was chosen to be the head of Hamas Political Bureau in Gaza while Dr. Khalil Al- Hayya was elected as his deputy.

Informed sources revealed that “the internal elections of Hamas in Gaza have ended, and that led to choosing Yahya Al-Sinwar as the head of Hamas Political Bureau in Gaza, and Dr. Khalil Al- Hayya as his deputy.

Yehya al-Sinwar, 50, is the most senior and prominent Hamas leader that was released according to the prisoners swap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He was arrested several times in the course of his life.

He was appointed immediately after he was released as advisor to the deputy head of the Political Bureau of the Movement, Ismail Haniyeh, and was in charge of the file of the Israeli prisoners with al-Qassam Brigades.

According to information posted on the a website belonging to the al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – he has been placed under arrest, administrative detention and tortured by Israeli security forces for one reason or another since 1982.

Sinwar founded Majd – a security network for Hamas – in the early 1980s, which targeted, and killed, Palestinians it suspected of collaborating with Israel.

He was also allegedly responsible for recruiting for the security wing from the southern regions of the Gaza strip.

His brother, Mohammed Al-Sinwar, is the Hamas’s armed commander whom some suspect of helping plan the cross-border raid in which Shalit was captured.