عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Blank Ballots Impede Vote for New Hamas Leader

Hamas leaders, from right: Rawhi Mushtaha, Saleh al-Arouri and Ismail Haniyeh, all of whom were assassinated, Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas media)
Hamas leaders, from right: Rawhi Mushtaha, Saleh al-Arouri and Ismail Haniyeh, all of whom were assassinated, Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas media)
TT
TT

Blank Ballots Impede Vote for New Hamas Leader

Hamas leaders, from right: Rawhi Mushtaha, Saleh al-Arouri and Ismail Haniyeh, all of whom were assassinated, Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas media)
Hamas leaders, from right: Rawhi Mushtaha, Saleh al-Arouri and Ismail Haniyeh, all of whom were assassinated, Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas media)

While many were waiting to learn who would become the new head of Hamas’s political bureau, the movement issued a rare and surprising statement last Saturday saying the result could not be decided in the first round and that a second would be held.

Asharq Al-Awsat asked Hamas sources inside and outside Gaza why the process of electing a new leader had stalled.

Speaking separately, they cited several factors, including “blank ballots” cast by some voters to show they were not backing either of the two contenders, Khalil al-Hayya, head of Hamas’s office in Gaza, and Khaled Meshaal, his counterpart abroad.

Hamas is facing its worst crisis since it was founded in 1987. Israeli strikes that began after the October 7, 2023, attack have hit its various wings and leaderships.

Israel assassinated its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024. He was succeeded by Yahya al-Sinwar in Gaza in October of the same year.

For about a year and a half, a “leadership council” has been running Hamas’s affairs. At the start of this year, a new push began to elect a chief to lead the movement for the remaining period of the current political bureau’s term. The term had been due to end in 2025 but was extended by one year, pending general elections at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

Two options

Three Hamas sources, including two outside Gaza, told Asharq Al-Awsat that since the result was not decided in favor of either al-Hayya or Meshaal, the movement’s internal regulations offer “two options: either the candidate with fewer votes withdraws in favor of the one with more, or a second round is held within 20 days of the first.”

The vote to elect the head of the political bureau is conducted through the 71-member Shura Council.

The two sources outside Gaza said many voters submitted blank votes, meaning they did not name any candidate. This prevented either contender from winning the first round.

Both sources, who are senior leaders in the movement, said this was “the first time” they had seen such a situation in a vote for the head of the bureau.

One source said the situation suggested “dissatisfaction with the two competing figures, and perhaps a protest against the movement’s policies and an attempt to push toward a younger leadership.”

The other source said: “This is not necessarily a protest against the contenders, as much as it indicates that there is real rejection of some policies on several files, or a desire to postpone the idea of electing an interim chief, wait until comprehensive elections are held, and keep the current leadership council in place.”

Hard-fought contest

Assessments inside and outside Hamas suggest that the competition between al-Hayya and Meshaal reflects diverging trends between two camps within the movement.

Al-Hayya is believed to be closer to support from the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, and to advocates of closer ties with Iran.

Meshaal is seen as representing a current that is more independent from tying the movement’s path to Tehran, as reflected in his dispute over the events of the Syrian revolution and in distancing the movement from involvement in it.

One source outside Gaza described the election as a very tight contest between Meshaal and al-Hayya, saying Hamas’s leadership in Gaza had controlled the movement’s most important files over the past two election cycles.

The source inside Gaza said only that “decisions within the movement are made by consensus, regardless of the standing or historical role of whoever leads Hamas.”

Previous elections

In previous years, elections for the head of Hamas’s political bureau were held as part of broader elections for the entire bureau and its various bodies.

In the last comprehensive elections, held in 2021, Haniyeh secured the leadership of the political bureau for a second term. His closest rivals were Saleh al-Arouri and Mohammed Nazzal, respectively.

In his first term as head of the movement in 2017, Haniyeh ran for the leadership with relative ease after Meshaal, who led Hamas’s political bureau between 2013 and 2017, was unable to run.

In the last election, held in Gaza, there was a fierce contest between Sinwar and Nizar Awadallah. It was heading for a second round before Awadallah withdrew in favor of Sinwar.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Drone Strike on Central Sudan Market Kills 11

FILE - This grab from video shows smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 26, 2024, after Sudan's military started an operation to take areas of the capital from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Rashed Ahmed, File)
FILE - This grab from video shows smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 26, 2024, after Sudan's military started an operation to take areas of the capital from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Rashed Ahmed, File)
TT
TT

Drone Strike on Central Sudan Market Kills 11

FILE - This grab from video shows smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 26, 2024, after Sudan's military started an operation to take areas of the capital from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Rashed Ahmed, File)
FILE - This grab from video shows smoke rising over Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 26, 2024, after Sudan's military started an operation to take areas of the capital from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Rashed Ahmed, File)

A drone strike hit a market in central Sudan on Saturday, killing 11 civilians and wounding dozens more, a rights group said, as escalating aerial attacks deepen the toll of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The attack targeted the main market in Abu Zaeima, a paramilitary-controlled town in North Kordofan state, according to the Emergency Lawyers, a rights group that has documented abuses since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The group said the casualty figures could rise but did not specify who carried out the attack. Neither side has commented.

Emergency Lawyers said similar drone attacks had struck nearby villages and civilian vehicles less than a day earlier.

Two witnesses told AFP that another drone hit a fuel station later on Saturday in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, which has been partially encircled by RSF forces for months.

A medical source at a hospital there said the facility received four wounded civilians.

The attacks followed a deadly week in the broader Kordofan region.

Nearly 70 people were killed in two separate drone strikes in West and North Kordofan states, according to Emergency Lawyers and a local leader.

Drone warfare has become an increasingly prominent feature of Sudan's conflict. The UN says that between January and April, at least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes nationwide.

Fighting has intensified in Kordofan and Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border since the RSF captured El-Fasher last October, the military's last major stronghold in western Darfur.

Since then, more than 300,000 people have fled frontline areas, including El-Fasher and parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile, according to the UN.

Kordofan, rich in oil and arable land, is strategically significant, linking RSF strongholds in the neighboring Darfur region to the country's army-controlled east. The region remains largely contested between the army and the RSF.

Having entered its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million from their homes, creating what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.

Arab World

Facing Settler Violence, Palestinian Farmers Race to Harvest

Palestinians are rushing to gather in their crops against a backdrop of violence from Israeli settlers. Zain JAAFAR / AFP
Palestinians are rushing to gather in their crops against a backdrop of violence from Israeli settlers. Zain JAAFAR / AFP
TT
TT

Facing Settler Violence, Palestinian Farmers Race to Harvest

Palestinians are rushing to gather in their crops against a backdrop of violence from Israeli settlers. Zain JAAFAR / AFP
Palestinians are rushing to gather in their crops against a backdrop of violence from Israeli settlers. Zain JAAFAR / AFP

With pitchforks and a makeshift combine the size of a golf cart, Hamad Jazi and his nephews race under the blazing sun to collect wheat from their West Bank field.

Israeli settlers have recently set fire to crops in the area, and Jazi fears his wheat could suffer a similar fate.

Their village of As-Sawiyah, in the center of the occupied West Bank, sits in a valley dominated by hills on top of which three settlements stand.

"The settlers have set fires twice already -- yesterday and the day before," Jazi told AFP.

"If you think back 10, 15 or 20 years ago, this season used to be a season of abundance. Today, you are racing against time just to harvest quickly and leave," he added.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Shielded by what rights groups describe as impunity from the law, some settlers have harassed rural Palestinian communities, vandalizing property and crops, committing arson and sometimes killing.

By all metrics, 2026 has been one of the most violent years to date, with an average of six attacks per day, according to data from UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

The surge in violence goes hand in hand with the proliferation of settlements in the West Bank, which part of the Israeli political class is threatening to annex.

Settlers in rural areas vandalize property and start fires, at times sowing terror in villages, as shown in videos posted on social media, sometimes by the perpetrators themselves.

The attacks have sparked criticism inside Israel, where the opposition accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and his far-right allies of turning a blind eye to acts of settler violence.

According to Mahmud Fatafta of the Palestinian Authority's agriculture ministry, settlers killed or stole 8,000 goats or sheep in the West Bank in 2026.

According to his ministry's data, 41,000 olive trees, a crop as emblematic to Palestinians as it is ubiquitous in the West Bank's rocky hills, were damaged by settlers or Israel's military in 2026.

- 'Steal our own crops' -

"In the past, when we went out into the fields, the olive harvest was a celebration; the grain harvest was a celebration," Jazi, his face worn by the sun, told AFP.

Now, "we live those moments like thieves. We go and 'steal' our own olives or our own crops", he said, complaining that the Israeli military requires him to coordinate with it before entering his fields.

Hikmat Abu Ras, head of As-Sawiya's village council, told AFP that his and neighboring communities have faced near daily attacks from settlers since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

"They constantly carry out these practices in order to drive us off our land and prevent us from entering it," he said.

Abu Ras lamented increasing movement restrictions that further isolate communities like his.

"Gates block the entrances to villages, camps, and cities. Movement is restricted. You race against time just to make sure the settler does not come and seize what is on your land."

Arab World

Egyptian Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Syria Nominates New Ambassador Instead of Al-Ahmad, Approval Under Way

Egyptian Foreign Minister and his Syrian counterpart during a previous meeting in Cairo. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
Egyptian Foreign Minister and his Syrian counterpart during a previous meeting in Cairo. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
TT
TT

Egyptian Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Syria Nominates New Ambassador Instead of Al-Ahmad, Approval Under Way

Egyptian Foreign Minister and his Syrian counterpart during a previous meeting in Cairo. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
Egyptian Foreign Minister and his Syrian counterpart during a previous meeting in Cairo. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)

The crisis surrounding Syria's nomination of Mohammad Taha Al-Ahmad as its ambassador to Egypt, first revealed in an Asharq Al-Awsat report published on June 1, appears to be heading toward a resolution. An Egyptian official source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Cairo has received the name of a new nominee from the Syrian side and is in the process of approving him.

Asharq Al-Awsat previously published a widely discussed report on what it described as "Egyptian reservations" that had delayed Cairo's acceptance of several members of the Syrian diplomatic mission. At the time, an informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that there were objections to some members of the delegation, including Egypt's refusal to approve Syria's nominee for ambassador to Cairo.

The source explained in the June 1 report that the Syrian government had formally nominated Mohammad Taha Al-Ahmad as ambassador to Egypt. While the Egyptian government did not explicitly reject the nomination, it conveyed unofficial messages indicating that it did not consider him an acceptable candidate because of his political background.

Mohammad Taha Al-Ahmad currently serves as director of the Arab Affairs Department at Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. He earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Aleppo in 2007, a master's degree in the financial and economic evaluation of agricultural projects from Cairo University in 2012, and a doctorate in agricultural development from the University of Idlib in 2020.

He held several ministerial positions in the Syrian Salvation Government before being appointed to his current position at the Foreign Ministry in May 2025. The following month, he was appointed head of the People's Assembly election committee.

The Syrian foreign minister during talks in Cairo last month. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)

Another Nominee

An Egyptian official source told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the Syrian government has submitted another nominee to head the Syrian diplomatic mission in Cairo," noting that "the process is moving toward approval of the new nominee by the Egyptian authorities."

The source said that "matters are proceeding normally and positively with the Syrian side," without disclosing the nominee's identity.

Since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad, Egyptian-Syrian relations have been marked by cautious bilateral engagement, driven by Cairo's concerns over the issue of armed groups, before gradually shifting toward economic cooperation.

In late April, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the Arab-European Consultative Summit in Cyprus. Media outlets in both Cairo and Damascus reported at the time that the two presidents held a "cordial discussion" on regional developments and ways to strengthen cooperation.

While the Egyptian source declined to reveal the name of the new nominee to head Syria's diplomatic mission in Cairo, Firas Al-Khalidi, coordinator of the Cairo Platform, a member of Syria's Constitutional Committee and a member of the Syrian Negotiations Commission, said that "the Syrian side has nominated Yahya Diab, a former diplomat who defected from Bashar Al-Assad's regime, as ambassador to Cairo."

Al-Khalidi told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the Egyptian side has accepted Diab's nomination to head the Syrian mission in Cairo."

The crisis over Syria's ambassadorial nomination to Cairo appears to be heading toward a resolution. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)

Cautious Relations

Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister Ambassador Hussein Haridy said that "the Egyptian government has the right to reject any nominee to head a diplomatic mission, or any other diplomat, if it possesses information indicating that the nominee engaged in activities affecting its national security."

Haridy told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the Syrian side publicly announced Mohammad Taha Al-Ahmad's nomination to the embassy in Cairo before obtaining Egypt's approval," describing the move as contrary to established diplomatic practice.

In Haridy's view, "relations between Cairo and Damascus will remain cautious given the background of the current Syrian government."

He said that "the Egyptian side distinguishes between the historic people-to-people relationship between the two countries and its channels of communication with Syria's current government. There remain areas for cooperation between Cairo and Damascus, particularly at the economic level."

In January, Damascus hosted the first Egyptian-Syrian Economic and Investment Forum, with the participation of 26 leaders from Egyptian chambers of commerce and business organizations. The event aimed to build effective partnerships between the two countries' commercial chambers and explore opportunities for cooperation in trade, industry, services, infrastructure and reconstruction.

At the time, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce said that the forum sought to create Syrian-Egyptian-European alliances through the Union of Mediterranean Chambers and to promote Syrian exports to Africa through the Federation of African Chambers.