Israel says it targeted Hamas Gaza leader Ali al-Amoudi in strike that killed five

Mixed · 2The Israeli military said on Saturday 3 October that it tried to kill Ali al-Amoudi, Hamas's top leader in the Gaza Strip, in an airstrike on an apartment in Gaza City. 1 2 Right · 1The Jerusalem Post reported that at around 8 a.m. the IDF opened fire with an attack helicopter and tanks at what were first described as suspicious targets that had approached the Yellow Line, and that it later emerged the target was Amoudi. 2 Centre · 1AFP described the strike as pre-dawn and said it fell on the anniversary, by the Jewish calendar, of the 7 October 2023 attack. 1

Centre · 1Israel said it was reviewing whether it had killed or injured Amoudi. 1 Centre · 1The military called Amoudi the "right-hand man" of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, said he was involved in planning the 7 October attack, and said he was directly involved in Hamas's activities and in rebuilding the organisation for war. 1 Centre · 1Israel said it struck after learning he was inside an apartment building, which it said showed Hamas was using civilians as human shields. It said steps were taken to mitigate harm, including precise munitions, and that it "regrets any harm caused to uninvolved individuals". 1

Centre · 1An official at Al-Shifa hospital told AFP it received five bodies and a number of injured from the strike in the Rimal neighbourhood. The dead were two women and their daughters, plus a man, and local officials put the number of women among them at four. The hospital director said two of the dead were Christians. 1 Centre · 1Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said two missiles directly hit the apartment, causing a fire and damaging the building. Civil defence is a rescue force operating under Hamas authority. 1 Centre · 1Mourners gathered at the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Porphyrius for the funeral of Maysaa Abu Daoud, 56, and her daughter Mary Al-Najjar, 36. A relative, Ihab Ayad, said they had been "minding their own business" at home. 1

Right · 1Amoudi was freed in the 2011 Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange after nearly 20 years in an Israeli prison, was elected to Hamas's political bureau and headed Sinwar's office, according to the Jerusalem Post. It said he became de facto Gaza leader after Sinwar was killed in October 2024 and formally took the post in July. 2 Centre · 1The strike came a year after a US-brokered ceasefire was declared. Gaza's health ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,440 people since then, while the Israeli military has identified five deaths in its ranks and one civilian contractor. Hamas's overall leader, Khalil al-Hayaa, lives in Qatar and agreed in July to a US plan for Hamas to give up its weapons, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as insincere. 1