Hamas seems to be signaling and leaving door open for peace talks and change of charter:



Ismail Haniya headed Palestinian militant group Hamas' national list of candidates in January's legislative elections, in which they were the surprise victors.
Mr Haniya rose to prominence as a close associate of Hamas' spiritual leader, the late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, whose office he ran.

But he is considered a moderate in the movement's ranks whose position on the list was intended to appeal to mainstream Palestinian voters.

After the election results had been announced on Thursday, Mr Haniya said he would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to start consultations on "a political partnership" and the make-up of a new government.

Activist

Mr Haniya was born in 1962 in the Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza city, after his parents fled their home near what is now the Israeli town of Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.


Haniya was detained three times during the first intifada

He studied Arabic Literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he became involved in the Islamist movement.

Mr Haniya graduated in 1987, just as a mass uprising, or intifada, against the Israeli occupation erupted in Gaza.

He was detained by the Israeli authorities for participating in protests soon afterwards, though his prison sentence was short.

In 1988, with Hamas coming to the fore in Gaza as a leading resistance movement, he was again detained, but this time imprisoned for six months.

The next year, with Israel unable to quash Palestinian resistance, Mr Haniya was arrested yet again and sentenced to three years in prison.

Academic

Following his release in 1992, Israel deported Mr Haniya along with senior Hamas leaders Abdel-Aziz Rantissi and Mahmoud Zahhar and over 400 other activists to South Lebanon.

The activists spent more than a year camped at Marj al-Zahour, where the Islamist group received unprecedented media exposure and became known throughout the world.

Mr Haniya returned to Gaza in December 1993 and was appointed dean of the Islamic University.

After Israel released Sheikh Yassin from prison in 1997, Mr Haniya was appointed his assistant.

The two men's close relationship led to Mr Haniya gaining increasing prominence within the movement and he became the group's representative to the Palestinian Authority.

Target

With his high profile, however, came the threat of Israel's policy of eliminating Hamas' military and political leaders.


Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Haniya were targeted by Israel

In September 2003, Mr Haniya and Sheikh Yassin were slightly injured in an Israeli air strike on an apartment block in Gaza City.

The two men left the building seconds before the bomb struck, after hearing the approaching Israeli aircraft.

Only six months later, Sheikh Yassin was killed by Israeli helicopter gunships as he left a mosque after dawn prayers.

When Sheikh Yassin's successor in Gaza, Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, was killed by Israel in April 2004, Hamas decided to keep the name of its new leader in Gaza secret.

But Palestinian sources said Mr Haniya was appointed to the group's "collective leadership" with Mahmoud Zahhar and Sayyid al-Sayyam.

Pragmatist

Although Mr Zahhar is thought to be the most senior of those leaders, Mr Haniya was chosen to lead Hamas' campaign for the January election.

Hamas' surprise victory in the poll has led some to suggest Mr Haniya could become the new Palestinian prime minister.

Asked whether Hamas would respond to an invitation to form the new cabinet, Mr Haniya told the BBC it would be consulting President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and other groups to establish what he called a political partnership.

Considered a pragmatist, he is also more open to dialogue with Israel than many other Hamas leaders.

However, he has insisted that Israel would have to recognise Palestinian rights before talks could begin