New Hamas chief makes 1st public appearance in native Gaza

Haniyeh, seen as a pragmatist within the movement, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007.

PM Ntanyahu said that the Hamas document showed that the Palestinian group remains unwilling to make peace with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday symbolically threw into a trash can a recently released Hamas policy paper that appeared to ease its stance on Israel in a video published on social media outlet, Reuters reports.

Ismail Haniyeh was born in Shati refugee camp on May 23, 1963, where his parents fled from Ashkelon city after the Palestinian Nakba.

The new Hamas leader has made his first public appearance, visiting people expressing solidarity for hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Photos of the prisoners were displayed in the tent. Several attempts at reconciliation since have failed.

Haniyeh also faces movement restrictions that could limit his leadership role.

Political leaders are able to leave the territory on certain occasions, but only with Egypt’s blessing.

The Gaza border authority said on Saturday that “more than 20,000 Palestinian citizens, who are considered humanitarian cases, are stuck in Gaza and desperately need to travel abroad” for treatment.

“Ismail Haniya is the most appropriate person to promote this document to Arab and worldwide leaders”, said Gaza political scientist Mukhaimer Abu Saada.

Gaza-based political analyst Hani Habib said he did not forsee a big paradigm shift in internal Palestinian politics under the new leadership.

Yahya Sinwar was jailed by Israel until October 2011, when he was freed along with more than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured five years earlier.

Since quitting his longtime base in Damascus in 2012, Mashaal has mostly lived in lavish suites in the capital of the oil rich gulf state of Qatar.

An influential military figure, he represents for some the hardest line within the Islamist movement. After chasing out Abbas’ forces in 2007, it fought three cross-border wars with Israel, starting in 2008.

Like many Palestinian men, Haniyeh also had his fair share of life as Israeli prisoners.

The next step for Hamas should be to move in the direction of the two-state solution. Haniyeh, a former prime minister, competed for the post along with senior Hamas leaders Moussa Abu Marzouk and Mohammed Nazzal.

For the time being, Hamas seeks to maintain the status quo in the conflict with Israel. Through the fall and winter, Egypt had opened its Rafah crossing with Gaza a couple of times a month and allowed goods into Gaza.

Just last March, Israel authorities arrested Muhammad Murtaja, the Gaza branch head of the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) after it was discovered that he was using money given to his branch for humanitarian purposes to arm and train Hamas operatives against Israel.

Haniya rose to prominence in 2006 when he led Hamas to a legislative election victory over the Fatah movement, which had been in power for over a decade.

“Haniyeh was radicalized by the situation in Gaza”, said Bjorn Brenner, a researcher on Palestinian politics at the Swedish Defense University and the author of a book on Hamas.

With that deal later collapsing, the two political camps refuse to relinquish control in their respective territories.