Khalil al-Hayya

Khalil al-Hayya (Arabic: خليل الحية) is a senior Hamas official who was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council on 25 January 2006 as a representative of Gaza City. He resided in the neighborhood of Shuja'iyya.

Khalil al-Hayya said they attacked Israel on October 7th since it was necessary to "change the entire equation and not just have a clash," he also said: “We succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm." To NYT, he said that Hamas does not care about running Gaza, and he said Hamas began October 7 to tell people that the Palestinian cause would not die.

Seven or eight of his relatives, including two of his brothers, were killed by Israeli strikes on his home in 2007. One of his sons was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2008 while leading a rocket brigade. Another son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were killed by an airstrike on his home in July 2014 during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.

al-Hayya has called on the United Nations to recognize Palestine within its pre-1948 borders.