TEHRAN - Khalil al-Hayya, the newly elected head of Hamas's Political Bureau, has said in a brief message that Palestinians are the rightful owners of their country.

"I tell the occupiers that we are the rightful owners of Palestine,” the Shehab News Agency quoted al-Hayya as saying on Tuesday.

The new Hamas chief also said the assassination of the resistance leaders and commanders or the killing of their children cannot cause a crack in their determination to resist occupation.

"Neither the killing of our children nor the martyrdom of our leaders and commanders will intimidate us or cause us to lose our resolve," he said while pointing to Israel’s growing occupation of Palestinian lands.

According to Middle East Observer, al-Hayya also said, “We are not afraid of martyrdom in this path."

Over the years, al-Hayya has survived several assassination attempts. Israel tried to kill him in Qatar in September 2025, striking a building housing the Hamas delegation.

Al-Hayya survived the attack in Doha, but his son Hommam, his office director and several aides were killed.

His eldest son, Osama, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren were killed in the bombing of the family home during the 2014 war.

Hamas's growing strength

Al-Hayya's election as head of Hamas's Political Bureau also prompted reactions within Israel. Among them, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, described the appointment as further evidence of Hamas's growing strength and another failure for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Criticizing Netanyahu and his cabinet, as well as the prime minister's claims of having defeated Hamas, Lieberman said of al-Hayya's appointment: "After three years, Hamas is becoming stronger, recruiting tens of thousands of fighters, and has now chosen a new leader. This is the prime minister's 'total victory.'"

Palestinian sources announced on Monday that Khalil al-Hayya, a Palestinian politician and senior Hamas leader, had been elected head of the movement's Political Bureau. Observers view the appointment as a sign of continuity in the leadership approach established by the movement's commanders in the Gaza Strip, the persistence of the resistance, and the preservation of strategic ties with the Axis of Resistance.

In an official statement issued on Monday, Hamas said that Khalil al-Hayya had been elected the resistance movement's new leader following the completion of an internal electoral process conducted through its consultative and organizational mechanisms. Representatives from various constituencies—including the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, Israeli prisons, and Palestinians living abroad—participated in the election.

Khalil al-Hayya was born in 1960 into a well-known family in the Gaza Strip. He holds a doctorate in Islamic studies and is regarded as one of the founders of Hamas and one of its leading political figures.