Report: Hamas Chief To Step Down After Election
Khaled Meshal will step down as Hamas chief following an upcoming election to determine the group’s new political leader, a senior Hamas analyst said in an article that has been garnering much attention in the Arab media on Tuesday.
In the online article, widely quoted in the Arab press Tuesday morning, Mustafa Lidawi wrote that Meshal would be letting other Hamas leaders run for the leadership of the organization’ political bureau and steer the movement’s policy, after he retires, in the next few months.
Lidawi is a well-known and long standing member of the Hamas with strong ties to its leadership. In the past he had been the organization’s representative to Lebanon.
Hamas declined to respond.
Meshal was elected head of Hamas’s political bureau in 1997, after Dr. Mousa Abu Marzook was arrested.
Shortly after his ascent to Hamas leadership, Meshal was the target of a botched assassination attempt by agents from Israel’s Mossad espionage agency operating covertly in Jordan.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Fast Forward ‘Next year in Gracie Mansion’: Where Jewish NYC mayoral candidates will do Seder
-
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
-
Fast Forward Fake rabbi sentenced to 135 years for sexually abusing adoptive sons
-
Fast Forward Colombia appoints allegedly fake anti-Zionist rabbi as director of religious affairs
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion Trump’s Israel tariffs are a BDS dream come true — can Netanyahu make him rethink them?
- 3
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
- 4
Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Next year in Gracie Mansion’: Where Jewish NYC mayoral candidates will do Seder
-
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
-
Opinion Pro-Palestinian protests enriched Jewish life on my campus. Trump’s actions will do the opposite
-
Fast Forward Fake rabbi sentenced to 135 years for sexually abusing adoptive sons
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.