Khalil al-Hayya Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

 

Some Lesser Known Facts About Khalil al-Hayya

• Al-Hayya grew up in the Gaza Strip during its time under Egyptian rule.

• After completing his graduation, he began working as a part-time teacher.

• Since the 1980s, he has been associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni Islamist movement.

• In 1987, he joined Hamas during the Palestinian revolt against Israel.

• After working with Hamas for many years, he became a close associate of the former Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, whom he trusted.
  

  Khalil al-Hayya (R) with Yahya Sinwar

• In 2006, during a rally in Gaza City, he criticised President Mahmoud Abbas after the Palestinian Legislative Elections.

• He said that Abbas had started a war against God and Hamas during the rising factional violence.

• He added that Hamas would not accept any referendum or new elections and would get parliamentary authority after winning the election.

• In 2007, seven of his family members, including his wife, three children, and three brothers, were killed in Israeli air strikes. The attacks were planned to kill him.

• In 2008, one of his sons was killed by an Israeli airstrike.

• In 2009, during a rally, al-Hayya said that the government and Hamas had not made such rules as forcing female lawyers to wear hijabs and banning public touching.

• He added that Hamas is an Islamic resistance movement that would not force people, but would give advice only.

• His comments came during the tensions with extremist groups who were enforcing stricter religious rules in Gaza.

  

  Khalil al-Hayya speaking during a rally

• In 2011, he asked the United Nations to recognise Palestine within its pre-1948 borders.

• In November 2019, al-Hayya, along with Rawhi Mushtaha, formed a delegation from Gaza to visit countries such as Turkey and Lebanon.

• Reportedly, the group attended a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence officials before the trip.

• In July 2014, one of his sons, daughter-in-law, and grandson were killed by an airstrike on his home during the Gaza War.

• When he lived in the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood, during protests over electricity shortages, al-Hayya claimed that he also suffered without electricity and blamed the Palestinian Authority for the delays.

• In November 2021, al-Hayya said during a media conversation that the Palestinian Authority (PA) had been rejected by Palestinians, who thought that the PA had become a burden on the Palestinian cause.

• He said that the role of PA should be redefined within a national vision that includes all Palestinians.

• He added that there was a need for new leadership with a political program which represents the people.

• He criticised the security coordination of the PA with Israel in the West Bank. He blamed Mahmoud Abbas for the division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

  

  Khalil Al-Hayya outside the VIP hall at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip in 2021

• In January 2022, Hamas received an invitation from Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune. After that, Al-Hayya and Husam Badran went to Algeria for reconciliation talks with Hamas’s rival, Fatah.

• In October 2022, al-Hayya said in the media that he, along with other Palestinian faction leaders, attended a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

• Reportedly, it was the first meeting after 2012. The conflicts between Syria and Hamas started during the Syrian civil war when Hamas did not support Bashar al-Assad.

• During the meeting, Al-Hayya felt sorry for all the past actions they took against Syria. He said that the meeting was important for restarting the Palestinian-Syrian cooperation.

• He said that Syria had supported the Palestinian cause for a long time and praised its efforts. Bashar al-Assad promised that Syria would continue supporting the Palestinian fight.

• After the meeting, they agreed to end the conflicts between Hamas and Syria.
  

  A photo released by the Syrian news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (left) while talking to Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas political figure, and Ziad Nakhaleh, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Damascus in 2022

• Al-Hayya often represented Hamas in indirect talks with Israel, such as a hostage and ceasefire deal during the Gaza war.

• The New York Times, a noted media house, reported that in July 2023, al-Hayya was the main figure who planned the October 7 attack on Israel.

• He often supports maintaining strong relations with Iran.

• For the implementation of this plan, he held a meeting with senior Iranian commander Mohammed Said Izadi of the IRGC, who was based in Lebanon. Izadi managed the relationships of Iran with armed Palestinian groups.

• Reportedly, al-Hayya asked Izadi that Hamas would need help to strike sensitive targets in the early phase of the attack.

• After that, Al-Hayya claimed that Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 to change the entire equation and not only for a clash.

• He said that they put the Palestinian issue back on the global agenda as no country in the region was at peace.

• Once, during a conversation with The New York Times, he said that the goal of Hamas was not to rule Gaza or provide basic services like water and electricity, but rather to bring renewed attention to the Palestinian cause.

• He stated that Hamas launched the October 7 attack to show the world that the Palestinian cause would not die.

  

  A picture from the October 7 attacks

• In November 2023, al-Hayya said that the October 7 attack was a great action, and Hamas leadership expected a big reaction.

• In April 2024, during a rally, he said that Hamas would agree to stop the conflict, give up weapons, and become a political party only if a Palestinian state was created on pre-1967 borders.

• He added that the Palestinian refugees must return to present-day Israel after the establishment of this state.

• In October 2024, he appeared as a strong candidate to lead Hamas’s political office after Yahya Sinwar was killed in an Israeli attack.

• After Sinwar’s death, he said that Hamas would continue fighting until a Palestinian state was built on all Palestinian land with Jerusalem as its capital.

• In January 2025, during a rally, he called the October 7 attack a “historic moment.” He praised the achievements of the military. He said,
  

  The attack was a source of pride for Palestinians to be remembered for generations.”

• On 9 September 2025, Israel struck at Hamas headquarters in Qatar. Reportedly, one of his sons, Himam al-Hayya, and his office director, Jihad Labad, were killed in the attack.

• On the same day, an Israeli airstrike again targeted al-Hayya and other Hamas leaders at a residential compound in Doha, Qatar.