Battered but still breathing, Hamas is set to hold a long-delayed internal election to choose a new chief and political bureau in the coming weeks. The vote, coming after a years-long military campaign aimed at dismantling the terror group’s rule over the Gaza Strip, will likely offer an indication of Hamas’s future direction while broadcasting its continued existence as an organized entity and its ability to project power. Coming amid slow-moving negotiations aimed at disarming the group and installing a transitional leadership in Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, the vote will serve to telegraph whether Hamas plans on continuing to fight Israel over Gaza or whether it will shift to a less aggressive stance aimed at buying the time needed to rehabilitate its strength in the Strip and beyond, according to expert Michael Milshtein.…