Haniyeh re-elected as chief of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas

 Ismail Haniyeh has been re-elected as leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, officials said on Sunday, cementing his control of the organization which rules the Gaza Strip and has fought multiple violent conflicts with Israel.

Haniyeh, Hamas chief since 2017, has controlled the group’s political activities in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the diaspora largely from outside Gaza, splitting his time between Turkey and Qatar for the past two years.

He directed Hamas in an 11-day conflict with Israel in May that left over 250 in Gaza and 13 in Israel dead. An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire has mostly held since.

“Brother Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as the head of the movement’s political office for a second time,” one Palestinian official told Reuters following an internal election by party members. His term will last four years.