Ismail Haniyeh has been re-elected as head of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, following an internal election by party members in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“Brother Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as the head of the movement’s political office for a second time,” an unnamed Palestinian official told Reuters on Sunday.

Haniyeh has been the chief of Hamas since 2017. His second term will last four years.

He has been in charge of the resistance movement’s political activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, splitting his time between Turkey and Qatar over the past two years.

Haniyeh was the right-hand man of the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated along with a number of his guards on March 22, 2004, when an Israeli aircraft targeted them with Hellfire missiles as the 67-year-old leader was being wheeled out of an early morning prayer session held at a mosque close to his house in Gaza City.

The 58-year-old top Hamas official has fought multiple conflicts with Israel. He also directed the resistance groups in the recent Israeli military aggression on Gaza, in which they emerged victorious.