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GAZA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Hamas movement has elected an ex-prisoner as the top leader of the Gaza Strip, al-Jazeera reported on Monday.
Yehya al-Sinwar was released from an Isareli jail in October 2011 in an Egyptian-brokered swap deal.
The al-Jazeera report said that Sinwar was elected as the chief of the movement in Gaza, and Khalil el-Hayya as his deputy, in secret balloting held in Gaza, the West Bank, prisons, and among the Diaspora.
Sinwar, who was born in the refugee camp of Khan Younis in 1961, is considered a Hamas strongman.
Sources close to Hamas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that 15 Hamas leaders were elected to the leading council for the Gaza Strip.
Hamas leaders and the movement's spokesmen in Gaza both declined to comment to the report.
