Ismail Haniya elected as new Hamas chief

Gaza based Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday elected Ismail Haniya as its new political chief, replacing Qatar based veteran Khaled Meshaal.

"The Hamas Shura Council on Saturday elected Ismail Haniya as head of the movement's political bureau," said a statement on the group's official website.

This change of leadership comes just days after Hamas released its new policy document last week accepting the establishment of a Palestinian state based on 1967 lines.

The 42-point document reaffirms the group's belief that 'no part of the lines and no part of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded'.

Haniya served as Palestinian prime minister after Hamas won a 2006 parliamentary election but was sacked by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Recently, United States President Donald Trump has vowed to revive the stalled Israel-Palestine peace process by acting as a "mediator, an arbitrator or a facilitator". During his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, Trump had said he is committed to working with Israel and the Palestinians to reach an agreement.

Trump said the Palestinians and Israelis must work together to reach an agreement that allows both peoples to live, worship, thrive and prosper in peace.

President Abbas said that their strategic option and choice is to bring about peace based on the vision of the two-state, a Palestinian state with its capital of East Jerusalem that lives in peace and stability with the state of Israel based on the borders of 1967.

Palestinian militant outfit Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal has said that Trump has an 'historic opportunity' to pressurise Israel to find an "equitable solution" for the Palestinian people.

"The Trump administration has a greater threshold for boldness and the current scenario presents an historic opportunity to pressure Israel to find an equitable solution for the Palestinian people and it will be to the credit of the civilized world and the American administration to stop the darkness that we have been suffering from for many years," Meshaal said in an interview to CNN in Doha.