Ex-Gaza chief Haniya elected leader of Hamas

This file photo taken on February 24, 2017 shows senior political Hamas leader Ismail Haniya speaking during the opening of a new mosque in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP / SAID KHATIB)

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas’s former chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, has been elected overall head of the Palestinian Islamist group, succeeding Khaled Meshaal, its official media announced Saturday.
Haniya is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007, unlike Meshaal who lives in exile in Doha and has completed the maximum two terms in office.