Update 1: Hamas elects ex-prisoner as Gaza top leader: report

The Islamic Hamas movement has elected an ex-prisoner as the top leader of the Gaza Strip, al-Jazeera reported on Monday.

Yehya al-Sinwar was released from an Israeli jail in October 2011 in an Egyptian-brokered swap deal.

The al-Jazeera report said that Sinwar was elected as the chief of the movement in Gaza, and Khalil el-Hayya as his deputy, in secret balloting held in Gaza, the West Bank, prisons, and among the Diaspora.

Sinwar, who was born in the refugee camp of Khan Younis in 1961, is considered a Hamas strongman.

Hamas leaders and the movement's spokesmen in Gaza both declined to comment on the report, but sources close to Hamas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that 15 Hamas leaders were elected to the leading council for the Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, Fathi Hammad, Salah el-Bardaweel and Marwan Eiss were also elected as members in the council of the enclave's leadership, according to the sources.

The sources declined to disclose the name of the new Hamas chief or his deputies, but said the Shoura Council in the four different areas -- Gaza, the West Bank, prisons, and the Diaspora -- has held secret elections for two weeks.

The Shoura Council is the parliament of the Hamas movement, but the number of the council's members is available.

Shoura Council members usually elect the politburo of the movement, which consists of the chief and his deputies. Endit