Khaled Mashal (Arabic: خالد مشعل‎ Khālid Mashʿal, Levantine Arabic: [xaːled meʃʕal], born 28 May 1956) is a Palestinian political leader and the leader of the Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas since the Israeli assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in 2004.After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal came to lead the Kuwaiti branch of the organization. He moved from Kuwait to Jordan in 1991.