Yahya Sinwar won a second four-year term as Hamas leader in Gaza, Palestinian media is reporting. His victory was announced on Wednesday following several rounds of voting in which neither Sinwar nor his closest competitor, Nizar Awadullah, received more than 50% of the vote in order to claim victory. Hamas officials later confirmed the victory.
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Sinwar, who was jailed in Israel and sentenced in 1989 to four life sentences for the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers was released and returned to Gaza as part of the prisoner exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In September 2015, Sinwar was designated a terrorist by the United States government.