Israel targets senior Hamas official seen as Yahya Sinwar’s successor in Gaza City strike
Arab media outlets reported Saturday morning that the IDF attempted to kill Ali al-Amoudi, considered one of Hamas’ most senior officials in the Gaza Strip and widely seen as the Gaza “successor” to Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 massacre who was killed during the war. Al-Amoudi does not formally hold the title of Hamas leader in Gaza but is running for the position in the group’s internal elections. Palestinians reported earlier Saturday morning that five people, including four women, were killed when the Israeli Air Force struck a building in western Gaza City before dawn. According to the reports, rescue crews evacuated the dead and additional wounded people to hospitals and continued searching for more casualties trapped beneath the rubble. If the reports are accurate, the strike would mark a continuation of the IDF’s campaign targeting senior Hamas officials in recent weeks. The most recent senior figure killed was Hamas’ commander in northern Gaza, Izz al-Din Bik, who was killed in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City on Tuesday. On Wednesday of the previous week, Mohammed Abu Alwan, the head of Hamas’ finance department, was also killed. During the war, he managed to transfer more than 1 billion shekels to finance the terrorist organization’s activities in Gaza. A week and a half earlier, Hamas’ Rafah Brigade commander, Nael Abu Obeid, was killed in a drone strike. Al-Amoudi is a member of Hamas’ political bureau and a former prisoner who headed the organization’s information and media department before the war. Over the past year, he has become one of the central figures managing Hamas affairs in the Gaza Strip. He is now running against Nizar Awadallah for the leadership of the movement’s political bureau in Gaza. Al-Amoudi was born in the Gaza Strip and lives in Khan Younis. He was arrested by Israel in 2004 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, along with Yahya Sinwar and more than 1,000 other terrorists. His ties to Sinwar are considered one of the defining features of his activity within the terrorist organization. The two met during their years in Israeli prisons and remained close after their release. During Sinwar’s first term as head of Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza, from 2017 to 2021, al-Amoudi served as the director of his office. In 2021, al-Amoudi was elected to Hamas’ political bureau and was appointed that same year to head the movement’s information department. In that role, he was involved in shaping Hamas’ communications and messaging strategy and coordinating between the organization’s political leadership and its operational apparatuses. Following Sinwar’s killing in October 2024 and the deaths of a series of other senior Hamas leaders in Gaza during the war, al-Amoudi’s standing grew. According to reports, he assumed responsibility for managing the affairs of Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza and became a central figure in running the organization on the ground. During this period, his name was linked to a series of organizational changes and appointments within Hamas’ Gaza apparatus. Some of those moves reportedly sparked disagreements among senior members of the organization, with questions also raised within Hamas over how he had acquired his authority. Al-Amoudi is now competing with Nizar Awadallah for Hamas’ top position in the Gaza Strip. The first round produced no decisive result and the final round was suspended after Awadallah filed an appeal over aspects of the process. According to sources cited by Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, Khaled Mashaal and Zaher Jabarin support Awadallah, while al-Amoudi has the backing of Khalil al-Hayya, head of Hamas’ political bureau. However, Asharq Al-Awsat reported that it was not known with certainty whether al-Hayya supports either candidate. Despite his longstanding ties to Sinwar and his involvement in managing Hamas in Gaza, al-Amoudi is not identified as a commander of Hamas’ military wing. He is a senior political and organizational official whose influence has grown significantly following the killing of much of the organization’s senior leadership during the war.
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