Mahmoud al-Zahar was forced off the Hamas Shura Council, which administers the organization, in April 2013. In recent elections for the council, which ended on March 2013, Khaled Meshaal, the head of the movement’s political bureau, did everything he could to be elected for a third term, but he also invested the same effort to ensure that Zahar, his rival from Gaza, would be left out.

Zahar launched a vehement attack against Meshaal last year for adopting what he described as a conciliatory policy, without first consulting with the Hamas leadership. The two issues that set off Zahar were Meshaal’s decision, made with the support of the departing Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, to reconcile with Fatah and form a national unity government, and, even more troubling as far as Zahar was concerned, Meshaal’s declaration that Hamas would abandon the armed struggle (jihad) in favor of a nonviolent popular uprising.

For the first time in Hamas’ history, Zahar hung the movement’s dirty laundry out to dry where everyone could see it, and attacked Meshaal’s independent decisions, made without consulting with the Shura Council. At first, Zahar’s opposition led Meshaal to announce his resignation from the movement’s leadership, but he later withdrew his resignation and decided to wage battle against his opponents and the person who headed them.

Zahar has a significant power base among the hard-core members of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, consisting of activists and rank supporters who have followed him for years. They followed him blindly not only because of his status and the political power he had accumulated over the years as one of the Hamas members exiled to Lebanon, and as the movement’s legendary spokesperson. But they also followed him because he paid a steep personal price in the armed struggle against Israel, which he supported so fervently. Zahar lost two of his sons, both prominent members of the movement’s military wing, to that struggle.