A close battle over the Hamas leadership in Gaza between Yahya Sinwar and Nizar Awadallah

Hamas elections, which take place every four years, are a complex, long and secret process. This year they are taking place in parallel with the preparations for the Palestinian parliamentary elections, which are due to take place in May.

It will be recalled that Hamas is divided into four areas – the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, abroad and prisons in Israel. Each area elects a leader through a regional advisory council, which is also elected in the first phase of the election and is called the “Shura Council”. This is in Gaza.

In addition to the regional Shura councils, there is also a general Shura council made up of Hamas members from all regions – and it is the one that elects the general Hamas leader. Above the regional leaders is the Hamas Politburo, headed by the general leader of Hamas. Today, Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip is Yahya Sinwar. The leader of the organization in the West Bank is Saleh al-Aruri (originally from the village of Arura north of Ramallah, El) and the leader of the branch abroad is Maher Salah. The current head of Hamas ‘political bureau, who also serves as Hamas’ general leader, is Ismail Haniyeh.

Nizar Awadallah, 64, belongs to Hamas’ old generation of leadership. He served several times as a member of the Politburo, and served as head of the Politburo in Gaza while Haniyeh served as Hamas prime minister.

Although Awadallah does not belong to the moderate current in Hamas, he is considered a more settled and representative figure than Sinwar. He is one of the founders of the movement and was even close to the spiritual leader of the organization and its founder, Ahmad Yassin.

It is not known to the public because it is moving away from the spotlight. Unlike other members of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, Awadallah is rarely interviewed by the media. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Ein al-Shams University in Cairo, which he obtained in 1981.

Awadallah served as head of the al-Mujahmeh al-Islami charity (which was the infrastructure on which Hamas was built) in the years 2000-1982. He was arrested several times by Israel, during and after the first intifada, due to his involvement in terrorist activities in 1989- 1995. During Operations Resilient Cliff and Cast Lead, his house was bombed by the Air Force.

In addition, he served as a member of Hamas’ negotiating team in the Shalit deal and was considered To one of the engineers of the deal. He comes from a devout and influential religious family when his father served as a religious sage at the Al-Azhar Institution in Cairo.

In his youth, Awadallah led the military apparatus in Hamas after the arrest of Salah Rantisi in 1987, then called “Palestinian al-Mujahideen.” This mechanism was set up in front of the current military wing of Hamas – the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.