In the wake of this week's re-election as head of Hamas' political bureau of Khaled Meshaal to a fourth term comes the news that Mahmoud al-Zahar, the movement's strongman in Gaza, has been left out, Al-Monitor has learned. That means he has not been elected to be part  of the political bureau.

Championing Hamas' hard-line policy, al-Zahar was vehemently opposed to the reconciliation talks with the Fatah movement espoused by Meshaal. He also set out against Meshaal's stance that Hamas had to move from an armed struggle against Israel to an unarmed popular uprising.

In September 2003, al-Zahar survived an Israeli assassination attempt. The Israeli air force fired two missiles at his home in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza. Al-Zahar emerged unscathed, but his son, Khaled, who was to be married that day, was killed. In Januray 2008, al-Zahar lost his second son, Hussam, a member of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in an engagement with an IDF force in Gaza. 

Al-Zahar was also a leading figure in the negotiations following the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the release of Palestinian prisoners. He fostered close ties with the German mediator Gerhard Conrad.