Khaled Meshal will step down as Hamas chief following an upcoming election to determine the group's new political leader. Meshal will be letting other Hamas leaders run for the leadership of the organization's political bureau, and steer the movement's policy, after he retires, in the next few months. Meshal was elected head of Hamas's political bureau in 1997. Shortly after his assent to Hamas leadership, Meshal was the target of a botched assassination attempt by agents from Israel's Mossad espionage agency operating covertly in Jordan.