Gaza, Aug 3 (IANS): The Palestinian Islamic Hamas Movement announced that Ismail Haniyeh has been re-elected as its politburo chief for a new four-year term.

In a media statement on Monday, the Hamas said that Saleh Arouri was elected as Haniyeh's deputy, adding that "the movement has finalized its internal elections inside and outside Palestine", reports Xinhua news agency

Hamas was found in December 1987 by late spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city in 2004.

Hamas announced the start of its internal elections on February 19.

It elected a new Shoura Council (Hamas parliament), and elected Yehya Sinwar as Gaza leader and Khaled Meshaal as Hamas leader in Diaspora.

Haniyeh, born in 1963 in a refugee camp in western Gaza city, was elected in 2017 for the first time as the movement's politburo chief after he succeeded Meshaal.

Hamas' internal elections start with electing the political offices of the movement in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and abroad, and then electing the chief and the deputy chief of the movement's politburo.

In 2007, Hamas had violently seized control of the Gaza Strip and ousted the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.