Ismail Haniyeh handed his duties as head of Hamas in Gaza to his elected successor, Yahya Sinwar, Feb. 21. Haniyeh remains deputy head of the movement’s political bureau but is expected to be promoted to replace Khaled Meshaal at the top of the bureau after elections for the Shura Council, the organization’s supreme body, are held.

A senior Hamas source speaking on the condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that the election process would soon be completed and that Haniyeh would formally be declared the movement’s leader. He declined, however, to elaborate on the reason for the delay. According to the source, Haniyeh is already making decisions and conducting himself as the de facto chief of the political bureau.

On the occasion of the transfer of power, Haniyeh updated Sinwar on talks he had in January in Cairo with Khaled Fawzy, head of Egyptian intelligence, and on his view that improving relations with Egypt should be the movement’s top priority. According to Haniyeh, having good relations with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is the key to a reasonable modicum of existence for Gaza residents and for the survival of Hamas' leadership. Mass protests against electricity shortages in mid-January got organization leaders' attention and recognition of the potential of the pent-up rage and frustration generated by years of being mired in poverty.

The Hamas source, a former member of Haniyeh’s team of advisers, told Al-Monitor that since being elected movement leader in Gaza, Sinwar has been saying that he views Egypt as a friendly state with which arrangements and understandings must be reached and that the two parties would both enjoy the benefits of reconciliation.